XV 


H; 


./ 


/  \ 


A 'TRAVELER  FROM   ALTRURIA 


IRomance 


HY 

W.    D.    IIO  WELLS 

ACi'iibR  OF 

THE  COAST  OF  HOHKMIA  "   "THE  QUALITY  OF  MERCY1' 
"A    HAZARD    OF    NEW    FORTUNES"    ETC. 


NEW    YORK 
HARPER    &    BROTHERS    PUBLISHERS 

1  894 


rf  $  5  7 


Copyright,  1894,  by  WILLIAM  DEAN  HOWELLS. 


All  rights  reserved. 


Elcctrotypcd  by  J.  A.  Ho~juells  &  Co  .  Jefferson,   Ohio. 


PS 


A  i  A! 


In  compliance  with  current  copyright 

law,  U.  C.  Library  Bindery  produced 

this  replacement  volume  on  paper 

that  meets  the  ANSI  Standard  Z39.48- 

1984  to  replace  the  irreparably 

deteriorated  original. 

1993 


A  TBAVELEK  FKOM  ALTEUEIA. 


I. 

I  CONFESS  that  -with  all  my  curiosity  to  meet  an 
Altrurian,  I  was  in  no  hospitable  mood  towards  the 
traveler  when  he  finally  presented  himself,  pursuant 
to  the  letter  of  advice  sent  me  by  the  friend  who  in 
troduced  him.  It  would  be  easy  enough  to  take  care 
of  him  in  the  hotel ;  I  had  merely  to  engage  a  room 
for  him,  and  have  the  clerk  tell  him  his  money  was 
not  good  if  he  tried  to  pay  for  anything.  But  I  had 
swung  fairly  into  my  story  ;  its  people  were  about  me 
all  the  time ;  I  dwelt  amidst  its  events  and  places,  and 
I  did  not  see  how  I  could  welcome  my  guest  among 
them,  or  abandon  them  for  him.  Still,  when  he  actu 
ally  arrived,  and  I  took  his  hand  as  he  stepped  from 
the  train,  I  found  it  less  difficult  to  say  that  I  was  glad 
to  see  him  than  I  expected.  In  fact,  I  was  glad,  for  I 
could  not  look  upon  his  face  without  feeling  a  glow  of 


2         A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTKURIA. 

kindness  for  him.  I  had  not  the  least  trouble  in  iden 
tifying  him,  he  was  so  unlike  all  the  Americans  who 
dismounted  from  the  train  with  him,  and  who  all 
looked  hot,  worried  and  anxious.  ~  He  was  a  man  no 
longer  young,  but  in  what  we  call  the  heyday  of  life, 
when  our  own  people  are  so  absorbed  in  making  pro 
vision  for  the  future  that  they  may  be  said  not  to  live 
in  the  present  at  all.  This  Altrurian's  whole  counte 
nance,  and  especially  his  quiet,  gentle  eyes,  expressed 
a  vast  contemporaneity,  with  bounds  of  leisure  re 
moved  to  the  end  of  time  ;  or,  at  least,  this  was  the 
effect  of  something  in  them  which  I  am  obliged  to  re 
port  in  rather  fantastic  terms.  He  was  above  the 
middle  height  and  he  carried  himself  vigorously.  His 
face  was  sun-burnt,  or  sea-burnt,  where  it  was  not 
bearded  ;  and  although  I  knew  from  my  friend's  letter 
that  he  was  a  man  of  learning,  and  distinction  in  his 
own  country,  I  should  never  have  supposed  him  a  per 
son  of  scholarly  life,  he  was  so  far  from  sicklied  over 
with  anything  like  the  pale  cast  of  thought.  When 
he  took  the  hand  I  offered  him  in  my  half-hearted 
welcome  he  gave  it  a  grasp  that  decided  me  to  confine 
our  daily  greetings  to  something  much  less  muscular. 
"  Let  me  have  your  bag,"  I  said,  as  we  do  when  we 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  3 

meet  people  at  the  train,  and  lie  instantly  bestowed  a 
rather  heavy  valise  upon  me,  with  a  smile  in  his  be 
nignant  eyes,  as  if  it  had  been  the  greatest  favor. 
"  Have  you  got  any  checks  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  Yes,"  he  said,  in  very  good  English,  but  with  an 
accent  new  to  me  :  "I  bought  two."  He  gave  them 
to  me  and  I  passed  them  to  our  hotel  porter,  who  was 
waiting  there  with  the  baggage  cart.  Then  I  proposed 
that  we  should  walk  across  the  meadow  to  the  house, 
which  is  a  quarter  of  a  mile  or  so  from  the  station. 
We  started,  but  lie  stopped  suddenly  and  looked  back 
over  his  shoulder.  "  Oh,  you  needn't  be  troubled 
about  your  trunks,"  I  said.  "  The  porter  will  get  them 
to  the  house  all  right.  They'll  be  in  your  room  by 
the  time  we  get  there." 

"  But  he's  putting  them  into  the  \vagon  himself," 
said  the  Altrurian. 

"  Yes  ;  he  always  does  that.  He's  a  strong  young 
fellow.  He'll  manage  it.  You  needn't — "  I  could 
not  finish  saying  he  need  not  mind  the  porter  ;  he 
was  rushing  back  to  the  station,  and  I  had  the  mor 
tification  of  seeing  him  take  an  end  of  each  trunk 
and  help  the  porter  toss  it  into  the  wagon  ;  some 
lighter  pieces  he  put  in  himself,  and  he  did  not  stop 


4  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

till  all  the  baggage  the  train  had  left  was  disposed  of. 

I  stood  holding  his  valise,  unable  to  put  it  down  in 
my  embarrassment  at  this  eccentric  performance, 
which  had  been  evident  not  to  me  alone,  but  to  all  the 
people  who  arrived  by  the  train,  and  all  their  friends 
who  came  from  the  hotel  to  meet  them.  A  number 
of  these  passed  me  on  the  tally-ho  coach  ;  and  a  lady, 
who  had  got  her  husband  with  her  for  over  Sunday, 
and  was  in  very  good  spirits,  called  gayly  down  to  me : 
"  Your  friend  seems  fond  of  exercise  !  " 

"  Yes,"  I  answered  dryly  ;  the  sparkling  repartee 
which  ought  to  have  come  to  my  help  failed  to  show 
up.  But  it  was  impossible  to  be  vexed  with  the  Al- 
trurian  when  he  returned  to  me,  unruffled  by  his  bout 
with  the  baggage,  and  serenely  smiling. 

"  Do  you  know,"  he  said,  "  I  fancied  that  good  fel 
low  was  ashamed  of  my  helping  him.  I  hope  it  didn't 
seem  a  reflection  upon  him  in  any  way  before  your 
people  ?  I  ought  to  have  thought  of  that." 

"  I  guess  we  can  make  it  right  with  him.  I  dare 
say  he  felt  more  surprised  than  disgraced.  But  we" 
must  make  haste  a  little  now  ;  your  train  was  half  an 
hour  late,  and  we  shall  not  stand  so  good  a  chance  for 
supper  if  we  are  not  there  pretty  promptly." 


A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA.         5 

"  No  ?  "   said  the  Altrurian.      "  Why  ?  " 

"Well,"  I  said,  with  evasive  lightness,  "first  come, 
first  served,  you  know.  That's  human  nature." 

"Is  it  ? "  he  returned,  and  he  looked  at  me  as  one 
does  who  suspects  another  of  joking. 

"  Well,  isn't  it  ?"  I  retorted  ;  but  I  hurried  to  add  : 
"  Besides,  I  want  to  have  time  after  supper  to  show 
you  a  bit  of  our  landscape.  I  think  you'll  enjoy  it." 
I  knew  he  had  arrived  in  Boston  that  morning  by 
steamer,  and  I  now  thought  it  high  time  to  ask  him  : 
"  Well,  what  do  you  think  of  America,  anyway  ? "  I 
ought  really  to  have  asked  him  this  the  moment  he 
stepped  from  the  train. 

"  Oh,"  he  said,  "  I'm  intensely  interested,"  and  I 
perceived  that  he  spoke  with  a  certain  reservation. 
"As  the  most  advanced  country  of  its  time,  I've  always 
been  very  curious  to  see  it." 

The  last  sentence  raised  my  dashed  spirits  again, 
and  I  said  confidently  :  "You  must  find  our  system 
of  baggage  checks  delightful."  I  said  this  because 
it  is  is  one  of  the  first  things  we  brag  of  to  for 
eigners,  and  I  had  the  habit  of  it.  "  By  the  way," 
I  ventured  to  add,  "  I  suppose  you  meant  to  say  you 
brought  two  checks  when  I  asked  you  for  them  at 


6  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

the  train  just  now  ?  But  you  really  said  you  bought 
them." 

"  Yes,"  the  Altrurian  replied,  "  I  gave  half  a  dollar 
apiece  for  them  at  the  station  in  Boston.  I  saw  other 
people  doing  it,"  he  explained,  noting  my  surprise. 
"  Isn't  it  the  custom  ?  " 

"  I'm  happy  to  say  it  isn't  yet,  on  most  of  our  roads. 
They  were  tipping  the  baggage  man,  to  make  sure 
that  he  checked  their  baggage  in  time,  and  put  it  on 
the  train.  I  had  to  do  that  myself  when  I  came  up  ; 
otherwise  it  might  have  got  along  here  sometime  next 
day.  But  the  system  is  perfect." 

"  The  poor  man  looked  quite  worn  out,"  said  the 
Altrurian,  "  and  I  am  glad  I  gave  him  something.  He 
seemed'  to  have  several  hundred  pieces  of  baggage  to 
look  after,  and  he  wasn't  embarassed  like  your  porter 
by  my  helping  him  put  my  trunks  into  the  car.  May 
I  confess  that  the  meanness  of  the  station,  its  insuffi 
cient  facilities,  its  shabby  waiting  rooms,  and  its  whole 
crowded  and  confused  appearance  gave  me  rather  a 
bad  impression  ? " 

"  I  know,"  I  had  to  own,  "  it's  shameful  ;  but  you 
wouldn't  have  found  another"  station  in  the  city  so 
bad." 


A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA.          7 

"All,  then,"  said  the  Altrurian,  "  I  suppose  this  par 
ticular  road  is  too  poor  to  employ  more  baggage  men, 
or  build  new  stations  ;  they  seemed  rather  shabby  all 
the  way  up." 

"  Well,  no,"  I  was  obliged  to  confess,  "  it's  one  of 
the  richest  roads  in  the  country.  The  stock  stands  at 
about  180.  But  I'm  really  afraid  we  shall  be  late  to 
supper,  if  we  don't  get  on,"  I  broke  off  ;  though  I  was 
not  altogether  sorry  to  arrive  after  the  porter  had  dis 
posed  of  the  baggage.  I  dreaded  another  display  of 
active  sympathy  on  the  part  of  my  strange  companion; 
I  have  often  felt  sorry  myself  for  the  porters  of  hotels, 
but  I  have  never  thought  of  offering  to  help  them 
handle  the  heavy  trunks  that  they  manage. 

The  Altrurian  was  delighted  with  the  hotel';  and  in 
fact  it  did  look  extremely  pretty  with  its  branching 
piazzas  full  of  well-dressed  people,  and  its  green  lawns 
where  the  children  were  playing.  I  led  the  way  to 
the  room  which  I  had  taken  for  him  next  my  own  ;  it 
was  simply  furnished,  but  it  was  sweet  with  matting, 
fresh  linen  and  pure  white-washed  walls.  I  flung  open 
the  window  blinds  and  let  him  get  a  glimpse  of  the 
mountains  purpling  under  the  sunset,  the  lake  beneath, 
and  the  deeply  foliaged  shores. 


8  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

"  Glorious  !  Glorious  !  "  he  sighed. 

"  Yes,"  I  modestly  assented.  "  We  think  that's 
rather  fine."  He  stood  tranced  before  the  window, 
and  I  thought  I  had  better  say,  "  Well,  now  I  can't 
give  you  much  time  to  get  the  dust  of  travel  off ;  the 
dining  room  doors  close  at  eight,  and  we  must  hurry 
down." 

"  I'll  be  with  you  in  a  moment,"  he  said,  pulling  off 
his  coat. 

I  waited  impatiently  at  the  foot  of  the  stairs,  avoid 
ing  the  question  I  met  on  tli3  lips  and  in  the  eyes  of 
my  acquaintance.  The  fame  of  my  friend's  behavior 
at  the  station  must  have  spread  through  the  whole 
place  ;  and  everybody  wished  to  know  who  he  was.  I 
answered  simply  he  was  a  traveller  from  Altruria  ;  and 
in  some  cases  I  went  farther  and  explained  that  the 
Altrurians  were  peculiar. 

In  much  less'  time  than  it  seemed  my  friend  found 
me  ;  and  then  I  had  a  little  compensation  for  my  suf 
fering  in  his  behalf.  I  could  see  that,  whatever  peo 
ple  said  of  him,  they  felt  the  same  mysterious  liking 
at  sight  of  him  that  I  had  felt.  He  had  made  a  little 
change  in  his  dress,  and  I  perceived  that  the  women 
thought  him  not  only  good-looking,  but  well-dressed. 


A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA.          9 

They  followed  him  with  their  eyes  as  we  went  into 
the  dining  room,  and  I  was  rather  proud  of  being  with 
him,  as  if  I  somehow  shared  the  credit  of  his  clothes 
and  good  looks.  The  Altrurian  himself  seemed  most 
struck  with  the  head  waiter,  who  showed  us  to  our 
places,  and  while  we  were  waiting  for  our  supper  I 
found  a  chance  to  explain  that  he  was  a  divinity  stu 
dent  from  one  of  the  fresh-water  colleges,  and  was 
serving  here  during  his  summer  vacation.  This  seemed 
to  interest  my  friend  so  much  that  I  went  on  to  tell 
him  that  many  of  the  waitresses,  whom  he  saw  stand 
ing  there  subject  to  the  order  of  the  guests,  were 
country  school  mistresses  in  the  winter. 

"Ah,  that  is  as  it  should  be,"  he  said  ;  "  that  is  the 
kind  of  thing  I  expected  to  meet  with  in  America." 

"  Yes,"  I  responded,  in  my  flattered  national  vanity, 
"  if  America  means  anything  at  all  it  means  the  honor 
of  work  and  the  recognition  of  personal  worth  every 
where.  I  hope  you  are  going  to  make  a  long  stay 
with  us.  We  like  to  have  travellers  visit  us  who  can 
interpret  the  spirit  of  our  institutions  as  well  as  read 
their  letter.  As  a  rule,  Europeans  never  quite  get 
our  point  of  view.  Now  a  great  many  of  these  wait 
resses  are  ladies,  ift  the  true  sense  of  the  word:  self- 


10  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

respectful,  intelligent,   refined,  and  fit  to  grace — 

I  was  interrupted  by  the  noise  my  friend  made  in 
suddenly  pushing  back  his  chair  and  getting  to  his 
feet.  "  What's  the  matter  ? "  I  asked.  "  You're  not 
ill,  I  hope?" 

But  he  did  not  hear  me.  He  had  run  half  down 
the  dining  hall  toward  the  slender  young  girl  who  was 
bringing  us  our  supper.  I  had  ordered  rather  gener 
ously,  for  my  friend  had  owned  to  a  good  appetite, 
and  I  was  hungry  myself  with  waiting  for  him,  so 
that  the  tray  the  girl  carried  was  piled  up  with  heavy 
dishes.  To  my  dismay  I  saw,  rather  than  heard  at 
that  distance,  the  Altrurian  enter  into  a  polite  contro 
versy  with  her,  and  then,  as  if  overcoming  all  her 
scruples  by  sheer  strength  of  will,  possess  himself  of 
the  tray  and  make  off  with  it  toward  our  table.  The 
poor  child  followed  him,  blushing  to  her  hair  ;  the 
head  waiter  stood  looking  helplessly  on  ;  the  guests, 
who  at  that  late  hour  were  fortunately  few,  were  sim 
ply  aghast  at  the  scandal ;  the  Altrurian  alone  seemed 
to  think  his  conduct  the  most  natural  thing  in  the 
world.  He  put  the  tray  on  the  side  table  near  us,  and 
in  spite  of  our  waitress's  protests  insisted  upon  arrang 
ing  the  little  bird-Juiili  dishes  before  our  plates.  Then 


A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA.        11 

at  last  lie  sat  down,  and  the  girl,  flushed  and  tremu 
lous,  left  the  room,  as  I  could  not  help  suspecting,  to 
have  a  good  cry  in  the  kitchen:  She  did  not  come 
back,  and  the  head  waiter,  who  was  perhaps  afraid  to 
send  another  in  her  place,  looked  after  our  few  wants 
himself.  He  kept  a  sharp  eye  on  my  friend,  as  if  he 
were  not  quite  sure  he  was  safe,  but  the  Altrurian  re 
sumed  the  conversation  with  all  that  lightness  of  spir 
its  which  I  noticed  in  him  after  he  helped  the  porter 
with  the  baggage.  I  did  not  think  it  the  moment  to 
take  him  to  task  for  what  he  had  just  done  ;  I  was 
not  even  sure  that  it  was  the  part  of  a  host  to  do  so  at 
all,  and  between  the  one  doubt  and  the  other  I  left 
the  burden  of  the  talk  to  him. 

"  What  a  charming  young  creature  !  "  he  began. 
"  I  never  saw  anything  prettier  than  the  way  she  had 
of  refusing  my  help,  absolutely  without  coquetry  or 
affectation  of  any  kind.  She  is,  as  you  said,  a  perfect 
lady,  and  she  graces  her  work,  as  I  am  sure  she  would 
grace  any  exigency  of  life.  She  quite  realizes  my 
ideal  of  an  American  girl,  and  I  see  now  what  the 
spirit  of  your  country  must  be  from  such  an  expression 
of  it."  I  wished  to  tell  him  that  while  a  country 
school  teacher  who  waits  at  table  in  a  summer  hotel  is 


'12  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

very  much  to  be  respected  in  her  sphere,  she  is  not 
regarded  with  that  high  honor  which  some  other  wo 
men  command  among  us  ;  but  I  did  not  find  this  very 
easy,  after  what  I  had  said  of  our  esteem  for  labor  ; 
and  while  I  was  thinking  how  I  could  hedge,  my  friend 
went  on.  "  I  liked  England  greatly,  and  I  liked 
the  English,  but  I  could  not  like  the  theory  of  their 
civilization,  or  the  aristocratic  structure  of  their  so 
ciety.  It  seemed  to  me  iniquitous,  for  we  believe 
that  inequality  and  iniquity  are  the  same  in  the  last 
analysis." 

At  this  I  found  myself  able  to  say  :  "  Yes,  there  is 
something  terrible,  something  shocking,  in  the  frank 
brutality  with  which  Englishmen  affirm  the  essential 
inequality  of  men.  The  affirmation  of  the  essential 
equality  of  men  was  the  first  point  of  departure  with 
us,  when  we  separated  from  them." 

"  I  know,"  said  the  Altrurian.  "  How  grandly  it 
is  expressed  in  your  glorious  Declaration." 

"  Ah,  you  have  read  our  Declaration  of  Indepen 
dence  then?" 

"  Every  Altrurian  has  read  that,"  answered  my 
friend. 

"  Well,"  I  went  on  smoothly,  and  I  hoped  to  ren- 


A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA.        13 

der  what  I  was  going  to  say  the  means  of  enlightening 
him  without  offense  concerning  the  little  mistake  he 
he  had  just  made  with  the  waitress ;  "  of  course  we 
don't  take  that  in  its  closest  literality." 

"  I  don't  understand  you,"  he  said. 

"  Why,  you  know  it  was  rather  the  political  than 
jthe  social  traditions  of  England  that  we  broke  with, 
in  the  revolution." 

"  How  is  that  ?  he  returned.  "  Didn't  you  break 
with  monarchy  and  nobility,  and  ranks  and  classes  ? " 

"  Yes,  we  broke  with  all  those  things." 

"  But  I  found  them  a  part  of  the  social  as  well  as 
the  political  structure  in  England.  You  have  no 
kings  or  nobles  here.  Have  you  any  ranks  or  classes  ? " 

"  Well,  not  exactly  in  the  English  sense.  Our  ranks 
and  classes,  such  as  we  have,  are  what  I  may  call  vol 
untary." 

"  Oh,  I  understand.  I  suppose  that  from  time  to 
time  certain  ones  among  you  feel  the  need  of  serving, 
and  ask  leave  of  the  commonwealth  to  subordinate 
themselves  to  the  rest  of  the  state,  and  perform  all  the 
lowlier  offices  in  it.  Such  persons  must  be  held  in 
peculiar  honor.  Is  it  something  like  that  ?  " 

"  Well,  no,  I  can't  say  it's  quite  like  that.     In  fact, 


14:  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

I  think  I'd  better  let  you  trust  to  your  own  observa 
tion  of  our  life." 

"  But  I'm  sure,"  said  the  Altrurian,  with  a  simplic 
ity  so  fine  that  it  was  a  long  time  before  I  could  believe 
it  quite  real,  "  that  I  shall  approach  it  so  much  more 
intelligently  with  a  little  instruction  from  you.  You 
say  that  your  social  divisions  are  voluntary.  But  do 
I  understand  that  those  who  serve  among  you  do  not 
wish  to  do  so  ? " 

"Well,  I  don't  suppose  they  would  serve  if  they 
cculd  help  it,"  I  replied. 

"  Surely,"  said  the  Altrurian  with  a  look  of  horror, 
*•  you  don't  mean  that  they  arc  slaves." 

"  Oh,  no  !  Oh,  no  !  "  I  said  ;  "  the  War  put  an 
end  to  that.  We  arc  all  free,  now,  black  and 
white." 

"  But  if  they  do  not  wish  to  serve,  and  arc  not  held 
in  peculiar  honor  for  serving " 

*'  I  sec  that  my  word  '  voluntary '  has  misled  you," 
J  put  in.  "  It  isn't  the  word  exactly.  The  divisions 
among  us  are  rather  a  process  of  natural  selection. 
You  will  sec,  as  you  get  better  acquainted  with  the 
woi  kings  of  our  institutions,  that  there  arc  no  arbitrary 
distinctions  here,  but  the  fitness  of  the  work  for  the 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTKURIA.  15 

man  and  the  man  for  the  work  determines  the  social 
rank  that  each  one  holds." 

"  Ah,  that  is  fine  !  "  cried  the  Altrurian  with  a  glow 
of  enthusiasm.  "  Then  I  suppose  that  these  intelli 
gent  young  people  who  teach  school  in  winter  and 
serve  at  table  in  the  summer  are  in  a  sort  of  pro 
visional  state,  waiting  for  the  process  of  natural  selec 
tion  to  determine  whether  they  shall  finally  be  teachers 
or  waiters." 

"  Yes,  it  might  be  stated  in  some  such  terms,"  I 
assented,  though  I  was  not  altogether  easy  in  my 
mind.  It  seemed  to  me  that  I  was  not  quite  candid 
with  this  most  candid  spirit.  I  added,  "  You  know 
we  are  a  sort  of  fatalists  here  in  America.  We  are 
great  believers  in  the  doctrine  that  it  will  all  come  out 
right  in  the  end." 

"  Ah,  I  don't  wonder  at  that,"  said  the  Altrurian, 
"  if  the  process  of  natural  selection  works  so  perfectly 
among  you  as  you  say.  But  I  am  afraid  I  don't  un 
derstand  this  matter  of  your  domestic  service  yet.  I 
believe  you  said  that  all  honest  work  is  honored  in 
America.  Then  no  social  slight  attaches  to  service,  I 
suppose  ? " 

"  Well,  I  can't  say  that,  exactly.     The  fact  is,  a  cer- 


16        A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA. 

tain  social  slight  does  attach  to  service,  and  that  is 
one  reason  why  I  don't  quite  like  to  have  students 
wait  at  table.  It  won't  be  pleasant  for  them  to  re 
member  it  in  after  life,  and  it  won't  be  pleasant  for 
their  children  to  remember  it." 

"  Then  the  slight  would  descend  ? " 

"  I  think  it  would.  One  wouldn't  like  to  think 
one's  father  or  mother  had  been  at  service." 

The  Altrurian  said  nothing  for  a  moment.  Then 
he  remarked,  "  So  it  seems  that  while  all  honest  work 
is  honored  among  you,  there  are  some  kinds  of  honest 
work  that  are  not  honored  so  much  as  others." 

"  Yes." 

"  Why  ? " 

"  Because  some  occupations  are  more  degrading 
than  others." 

"  But  why  ?  "  he  persisted,  as  I  thought  a  little  un 
reasonably. 

"  Really,"  I  said,  "  I  think  I  must  leave  you  to  im 
agine." 

"  I  am  afraid  I  can't,"  he  said  sadly.  "  Then,  if 
domestic  service  is  degrading  in  your  eyes,  and  people 
are  not  willingly  servants  among  you,  may  I  ask  why 
any  are  servants  ?  " 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  17 

"  It  is  a  question  of  bread  and  butter.  They  are 
obliged  to  be." 

"  That  is,  they  are  forced  to  do  work  that  is  hateful 
and  disgraceful  to  them  because  they  cannot  live 
without  ? " 

"  Excuse  me,"  I  said,  not  at  all  liking  this  sort  of 
pursuit,  and  feeling  it  fair  to  turn  even  upon  a  guest 
who  kept  it  up.  "  Isn't  it  so  with  you  in  Altruria?  " 

"  It  was  so  once,"  he  admitted,  "  but  not  now.  In 
fact,  it  is  like  a  waking  dream  to  find  oneself  in  the 
presence  of  conditions  here  that  we  outlived  so  long 
ago." 

There  was  an  unconscious  superiority  in  this  speech 
that  nettled  me,  and  stung  me  to  retort :  "  We  do  not 
expect  to  outlive  them.  We  regard  them  as  final,  and 
as  indestructibly  based  in  human  nature  itself." 

"  All,"  said  the  Altrurian  with  a  delicate  and  caress 
ing  courtesy,  "  have  I  said  something  offensive  ?  " 

"  Not  at  all,"  I  hastened  to  answer.  "  It  is  not 
surprising  that  you  do  not  get  our  point  of  view  ex 
actly.  You  will,  by  and  by,  and  then,  I  think,  you 
will  see  that  it  is  the  true  one.  We  have  found  that 
the  logic  of  our  convictions  could  not  be  applied  to 
the  problem  of  domestic  service.  It  is  everywhere  a 


18  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

very  curious  and  perplexing  problem.  The  simple  old 
solution  of  the  problem  was  to  own  your  servants ; 
but  we  found  that  this  was  not  consistent  with  the 
spirit  of  our  free  institutions.  As  soon  as  it  was 
abandoned  the  anomaly  began.  We  had  outlived  the 
primitive  period  when  the  housekeeper  worked  with 
her  domestics  and  they  were  her  help,  and  were  called 
so ;  and  we  had  begun  to  have  servants  to  do  all  the 
household  work,  and  to  call  them  so.  This  state  of 
things  never  seemed  right  to  some  of  our  purest  and 
best  people.  They  fancied,  as  you  seem  to  have  done, 
that  to  compel  people  through  their  necessities  to  do 
your  hateful  drudgery,  and  to  wound  and  shame  them 
with  a  name  which  every  American  instinctively  re 
sents,  was  neither  republican  nor  Christian.  Some  of 
our  thinkers  tried  to  mend  matters  by  making  their 
domestics  a  part  of  their  families ;  and  in  the  life  of 
Emerson  you'll  find  an  amusing  account  of  his  attempt 
to  have  his  servant  eat  at  the  same  table  with  himself 
and  his  wife.  It  wouldn't  work.  He  and  his  wife 
could  stand  it,  but  the  servant  couldn't." 

I  paused,  for  this  was  where  the  laugh  ought  to 
have  come  in.  The  Altrurian  did  not  laugh,  lie  merely 
asked  :  "  Why  ?  " 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  19 

"  Well,  because  the  servant  knew,  if  they  didn't, 
that  they  were  a  whole  world  apart  in  their  traditions, 
and  were  no  more  fit  to  associate  than  New  Englanders 
and  New  Zealandcrs.  In  the  mere  matter  of  educa 
tion " 

"But  I  thought  you  said  that  these  young  girls 
who  wait  at  table  here  were  teachers." 

"  Oh,  I  beg  your  pardon ;  I  ought  to  have  ex 
plained.  By  this  time  it  had  become  impossible,  as 
it  now  is,  to  get  American  girls  to  take  service  except 
on  some  such  unusual  terms  as  we  have  in  a  summer 
hotel ;  and  the  domestics  were  already  ignorant  for 
eigners,  fit  for  nothing  else.  In  such  a  place  as  this 
it  isn't  so  bad.  It  is  more  as  if  the  girls  worked  in  a 
shop  or  a  factory.  They  command  their  own  time,  in 
a  measure ;  their  hours  are  tolerably  fixed,  and  they 
have  'each  other's  society.  In  a  private  family  they 
would  be  subject  to  order  at  all  times,  and  they  would 
have  no  social  life.  They  would  be  in  the  family, 
but  not  of  it.  American  girls  understand  this,  and 
so  they  won't  go  out  to  service  in  the  usual  way. 
Even  in  a  summer  hotel  the  relation  has  its  odious 
aspects.  The  system  of  giving  fees  seems  to  me  de 
grading  to  those  who  have  to  take  them.  To  offer  a 


20  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

student  or  a  teacher  a  dollar  for  personal  service — it 
isn't  right,  or  I  can't  make  it  so.  In  fact,  the  whole 
thing  is  rather  anomalous  with  us.  The  best  that 
you  can  say  of  it  is  that  it  works,  and  we  don't  know 
what  else  to  do." 

"But  I  don't  see  yet,"  said  the  Altrurian,  "  just 
why  domestic  service  isdegradin^  m  a  country  where 
all  kinds  of  work  arc  honored. 

"  Well,  my  dear  fellow,  1  nave  done  my  best  to 
explain.  As  I  intimated  before,  we  distinguish ;  and 
in  the  different  kinds  of  labor  we  distinguish  against 
domestic  service.  I  dare  say  it  is  partly  because  of 
the  loss  of  independence  which  it  involves.  People 
naturally  despise  a  dependent." 

"Why?"  asked  the  Altrurian,  with  that  innocence 
of  his  which  I  was  beginning  to  find  rather  trying. 

"Why?11  I  retorted.  "Because  it  implies  weak 
ness." 

"And  is  weakness  considered  despicable  among 
you  ?  "  he  pursued. 

"  In  every  community  it  is  despised  practically,  ]f 
not  theoretically,"  I  tried  to  explain.  "The  great 
thing  that  America  has  done  is  to  offer  the  race  an 
opportunity :  the  opportunity  for  any  man  to  rise 


A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA.        21 

above  the  rest,  and  to  take  the  highest  place,  if  he  is 
able."  I  had  always  been  proud  of  this  fact,  and  I 
thought  I  had  put  it  very  well,  but  the  Altrurian  did 
not  seem  much  impressed  by  it. 

He  said :  "I  do  not  see  how  it  differs  from  any 
country  of  the  past  in  that.  But  perhaps  you  mean 
that  to  rise  carries  with  it  an  obligation  to  those 
below.  *  If  any  is  first  Among  you,  let  him  be  your 
Servant.'  Is  it  something  like  that?" 

"  Well,  it  is  not  quite  like  that,"  I  answered,  re 
membering  how  very  little  our  self-made  men  as  a 
class  had  done  for  others.  "  Everyone  is  expected  to 
-look  out  for  himself  here.  I  fancy  that  there  would 
be  very  little  rising  if  men  were  expected  to  rise  for 
the  sake  of  others,  in  America.  How  is  it  with  you 
in  Altruria?  "  I  demanded,  hoping  to  get  out  of  a  cer 
tain  discomfort  I  felt,  in  that  way.  "  Do  your  risen 
men  generally  devote  themselves  to  the  good  of  the 
community  after  they  get  to  the  top  ?  " 

"  There  is  no  rising  among  us,"  he  said,  with  what 
seemed  a  perception  of  the  harsh  spirit  of  my  ques 
tion  ;  and  lie  paused  a  moment  before  he  asked  in  his 
turn,  "  How  do  men  rise  among  you  ?  " 

"  That  would  be  rather  a  long  story,"    I  replied. 


22        A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA. 

"  But  putting  it  in  the  rough,  I  should  say  that  they 
rose  by  their  talents,  their  shrewdness,  their  ability 
to  seize  an  advantage  and  turn  it  to  their  own 
account." 

"  And  is  that  considered  noble  ?  " 

"  It  is  considered  smart.  It  is  considered  at  the 
worst  far  better  than  a  dead  level  of  equality.  Are 
all  men  equal  in  Altruria?  Are  they  all  alike  gifted 
or  beautiful,  or  short  or  tall  ?  " 

"  No,  they  are  only  equal  in  duties  and  in  rights. 
But,  as  you  said  just  now,  that  is  a  very  long  story. 
Are  they  equal  in  nothing  here  ?" 

"  They  are  equal  in  opportunities." 

"  Ah  !  "  breathed  the  Altrurian,  "  I  am  glad  to  hear 
that." 

I  began  to  feel  a  little  uneasy,  and  I  was  not  quite 
sure  that  this  last  assertion  of  mine  would  hold  water. 
Everybody  but  ourselves  had  now  left  the  dining 
room,  and  I  saw  the  head  waiter  eying  us  impatiently. 
I  pushed  back  my  chair  and  said,  "  I'm  sorry  to  seem 
to  hurry  you,  but  I  should  like  to  show  you  a  very 
pretty  sunset  effect  we  have  here  before  it  is  too 
dark.  When  we  get  back,  I  want  to  introduce  you 
to  a  few  of  my  friends.  Of  course,  I  needn't  tell  you 


A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA.        23 

that  there  is  a  good  deal  of  curiosity  about  you,  espe 
cially  among  the  ladies." 

"  Yes,  I  found  that  the  case  in  England,  largely. 
It  was  the  women  who  cared  most  to  meet  me.  I 
understand  that  in  America  society  is  managed  even 
more  by  women  than  it  is  in  England." 

"  It's  entirely  in  their  hands,"  I  said,  with  the 
satisfaction  we  all  feel  in  the  fact.  "  We  have  no 
other  leisure  class.  •  The  richest  men  among  us  arc 
generally  hard  workers ;  devotion  to  business  is  the 
rule ;  but  as  soon  as  a  man  reaches  the  point  where 
he  can  afford  to  pay  for  domestic  service,  his  wife  and 
daughters  expect  to  be  released  from  it  to  the  culti 
vation  of  their  minds  and  the  enjoyment  of  social 
pleasures.  It's  quite  right".  That  is  what  makes 
them  so  delightful  to  foreigners.  You  must  have 
heard  their  praises  chanted  in  England.  The  English 
find  our  men  rather  stupid,  I  believe  ;  but  they  think 
our  women  arc  charming." 

"  Yes,  I  was  told  that  the  wives  of  their  nobility 
were  sometimes  Americans,"  said  the  Altrurian. 
"  The  English  think  that  you  regard  such  marriages 
as  a  great  honor,  and  that  they  are  very  gratifying  to 
your  national  pride." 


24  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

"  Well,  I  suppose  that  is  so  in  a  measure,"  I  con 
fessed.  "  I  imagine  that  it  will  not  be  long  before 
the  English  aristocracy  derives  as  largely  from  Amer 
ican  millionaires  as  from  kings'  mistresses.  Not,"  I 
added  virtuously,  "  that  we  approve  of  aristocracy." 

"No,  I  understand  that,"  said  the  Altrurian.  "  I 
shall  hope  to  get  your  point  of  view  in  this  matter 
more  distinctly  by  and  by.  As  yet,  I'm  a  little  vague 
about  it." 

"  I  think  I  can  gradually  make  it  clear  to  you,"  I 
returned. 


II. 

WE  left  the  hotel,  and  I  began  to  walk  my  friend 
across  the  meadow  toward  the  lake.  I  wished  him 
to  see  the  reflection  of  the  afterglow  in  its  still  waters, 
with  the  noble  lines  of  the  mountain  range  that 
glassed  itself  there ;  the  effect  is  one  of  the  greatest 
charms  of  that  lovely  region,  the  sojourn  of  the  sweet 
est  summer  in  the  world,  and  I  am  always  impatient 
to  show  it  to  strangers. 

We  climbed  the  meadow  wall  and  passed  through 
a  stretch  of  woods,  to  a  path  leading  down  to  the 
shore,  and  as  we  loitered  along  in  the  tender  gloom 
of  the  forest,  the  music  of  the  hermit-thrushes  rang 
all  round  us,  like  crystal  bells,  like  silver  flutes,  like 
the  drip  of  fountains,  like  the  choiring  of  still-eyed 
cherubim.  We  stopped  from  time  to  time  and  list 
ened,  while  the  shy  birds  sang  unseen  in  their  covert 
of  shadows ;  but  we  did  not  speak  till  we  emerged 
from  the  trees  and  suddenly  stood  upon  the  naked 
knoll  overlooking  the  lake. 


26  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

Then  I  explained,  "  The  woods  used  to  come  down 
to  the  shore  here,  and  we  had  their  mystery  and 
music  to  the  water's  edge ;  but  last  winter  the  owner 
cut  the  timber  off.  It  looks  rather  ragged  now."  I 
had  to  recognize  the  fact,  for  I  saw  the  Altrurian 
staring  about  him  over  the  clearing,  in  a  kind  of  hor 
ror.  It  was  a  squalid  ruin,  a  graceless  desolation, 
which  not  even  the  pitying  twilight  could  soften. 
The  stumps  showed  their  hideous  mutilation  every 
where  ;  the  brush  had  been  burned,  and  the  fires  had 
scorched  and  blackened  the  lean  soil  of  the  hill  slope, 
and  blasted  it  with  sterility.  A  few  weak  saplings, 
withered  by  the  flames,  drooped  and  straggled  about ; 
it  would  be  a  century  before  the  forces  of  nature  could 
repair  the  waste. 

"  You  say  the  owner  did  this,"  said  the  Altruiian. 
"  Who  is  the  owner  ?  " 

"  Well,  it  does  .-^em  too  bad,"  I  answered  eva 
sively.  "  There  has  been  a  good  deal  of  feeling  about 
it.  The  neighbors  tried  to  buy  him  off  before  he  be 
gan  the  destruction,  for  they  knew  the  value  of  the 
woods  as  an  attraction  to  summer-boarders ;  the  city 
cottagers,  of  course,  wanted  to  save  them,  and  to 
gether  they  offered  for  the  land  pretty  nearly  as  much 


A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA.        27 

as  the  limber  was  worth.  But  lie  had  got  it  into  his 
head  that  the  land  here  by  the  lake  would  sell  for 
building  lots  if  it  was  cleared,  and  he  could  make 
money  on  that  as  well  as  on  the  trees ;  and  so  they 
had  to  go.  Of  course,  one  might  say  that  he  was  de 
ficient  in  public  spirit,  but  I  don't  blame  him,  alto 
gether." 

"  No,"  the  Altrurian  assented,  somewhat  to  my 
surprise,  I  confess. 

I  resumed,  "  There  was  no  one  else  to  look  after  his 
interests,  and  it  was  not  only  his  right  but  his  duty 
to  get  the  most  he  could  for  himself  and  his  own,  ac 
cording  to  his  best  light.  That  is  what  I  tell  people 
when  they  fall  foul  of  him  for  his  want  of  public 
spirit." 

"  The  trouble  seems  to  be,  then,  in  the  system  that 
obliges  each  man  to  be  the  guardian  of  his  own  inter 
ests.  Is  that  what  you  blame  ? " 

"  No,  I  consider  it  a  very  pWfcct  system.  It  is 
based  upon  individuality,  and  we  believe  that  indi 
viduality  is  the  principle  that  differences  civilized 
men  from  savages,  from  the  lower  animals,  and  makes 
us  a  nation  instead  of  a  tribe  or  a  herd.  There  isn't 
one  of  us,  no  matter  how  much  he  censured  this 


28        A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTUURIA. 

man's  want  of  public  spirit,  but  would  resent  the 
slightest  interference  with  his  property  rights.  The 
woods  were  his ;  lie  had  the  right  to  do  what  he 
pleased  with  his  own." 

"  Do  I  understand  you  that,  in  America,  a  man 
may  do  what  is  wrong  with  his  own  ?  " 

"  He  may  do  anything  with  his  own." 

"  To  the  injury  of  others  ?  " 

"  Well,  not  in  person  or  property.  But  he  may 
hurt  them  in  taste  and  sentiment  as  much  as  he  likes. 
Can't  a  man  do  what  lie  pleases  with  his  own  in  Al- 
truria  ? " 

"  No,  he  can  only  do  right  with  his  own." 

"  And  if  he  tries  to  do  wrong,  or  what  the  commu 
nity  thinks  is  wrong  ?  " 

"  Then  the  community  takes  his  own  from  him." 
Before  I  could  think  of  anything  to  say  to  this  he 
went  on  :  "  But  I  wish  you  would  explain  to  me  why 
it  was  left  to  this  man's  neighbors  to  try  and  get 
him  to  sell  his  portion  of  the  landscape  ? " 

"Why,  bless  my  soul!"  I  exclaimed,  "who  else 
was  there  ^  You  wouldn't  have  expected  to  take  up 
a  collection  among  the  summer-boarders  ?  " 

"  That  wouldn't  have  been  so  unreasonable ;  but  I 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  29 

didn't  mean  that.  Was  there  no  provision  for  such 
an  exigency  in  your  laws  ?  Wasn't  the  state  empow 
ered  to  buy  him  off  at  the  full  value  of  his  timber 
arid  his  land  ?  " 

"  Certainly  not,"  I  replied.  "  That  would  be  rank 
paternalism." 

It  began  to  get  dark,  and  I  suggested  that  we  had 
better  be  going  back  to  the  hotel.  The  talk  seemed 
already  to  have  taken  us  away  from  all  pleasure  in 
the  prospect ;  I  said,  as  we  found  our  way  through 
the  rich,  balsam-scented  twilight  of  the  woods,  where 
one  joy-haunted  thrush  was  still  singing,  "  You  know 
that  in  America  the  law  is  careful  not  to  meddle  with 
a  man's  private  affairs,  and  we  don't  attempt  to  legis 
late  personal  virtue." 

"  But  marriage,"  he  said,  "  surely  you  have  the  in 
stitution  of  marriage  ? " 

I  was  really  annoyed  at  this.  I  returned  sarcas 
tically,  "  Yes,  I  am  glad  to  say  that  there  we  can 
meet  your  expectation ;  we  have  marriage,  not  only 
consecrated  by  the  church,  but  established  and  de 
fended  by  the  state.  What  has  that  to  do  with  the 
question  ? " 

"  And   you  consider  marriage,"  he  pursued,   "  the 


30  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

citadel  of  morality,  the  fountain  of  all  that  is  pure 
and  good  in  your  private  life,  the  source  of  home  and 
the  image  of  heaven  ? " 

"  There  are  some  marriages,"  I  said  with  a  touch 
of  our  national  humor,  "  that  do  not  quite  fill  the  bill, 
but  that  is  certainly  our  ideal  of  marriage.'' 

"  Then  why  do  you  say  that  you  have  not  legis 
lated  personal  virtue  in  America  ?  "  he  asked.  "  You 
have  laws,  I  believe,  against  theft  and  murder  and 
slander  and  incest  and  perjury  and  drunkenness?" 

"  Why,  certainly." 

"  Then  it  appears  to  me  that  you  have  legislated 
honesty,  regard  for  human  life,  regard  for  character, 
abhorence  of  unnatural  vice,  good  faith  and  sobriety. 
I  was  told  on  the  train  coming  up,  by  a  gentleman 
who  was  shocked  at  the  sight  of  a  man  beating  his 
horse,  that  you  even  had  laws  against  cruelty  to  ani 
mals." 

"  Yes,  and  I  am  happy  to  say  that  they  are  en 
forced  to  such  a  degree  that  a  man  cannot  kill  a  cat 
cruelly  without  being  punished  for  it."  The  Altru- 
rian  did  not  follow  up  his  advantage,  and  I  resolved 
not  to  be  outdone  in  magnanimity.  "  Come,  I  will 
own  that  you  have  the  best  of  me  on  those  points.  I 


A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA.        31 

must  say  you've  trapped  me  very  neatly,  too ;  I  can 
enjoy  a  thing  of  that  kind  when  it's  well  done,  and  I 
frankly  knock  under.  But  I  had  in  mind  something 
altogether  different  when  I  spoke.  I  was  thinking  of 
those  idealists  who  want  to  bind  us  hand  and  foot, 
and  render  us  the  slaves  of  a  state  where  the  most  in 
timate  relations  of  life  shall  be  penetrated  by  legisla 
tion,  and  the  very  hearthstone  shall  be  a  tablet  of 
laws." 

"  Isn't  marriage  a  rather  intimate  relation  of  life  ? " 
asked  the  Altrurian.  "  And  I  understood  that  gentle 
man  on  the  train  to  say  that  you  had  laws  against 
cruelty  to  children  and  societies  established  to  see 
them  enforced.  You  don't  consider  such  laws  an  in 
vasion  of  the  home,  do  you,  or  a  violation  of  its 
immunities  ?  I  imagine,"  he  went  on,  "  that  the  dif 
ference  between  your  civilization  and  ours  is  only 
one  of  degree,  after  all,  and  that  America  and  Altruria 
are  really  one  at  heart." 

I  thought  his  compliment  a  bit  hyperbolical,  but  I 
saw  that  it  was  honestly  meant,  and  as  we  Americans 
are  first  of  all  patriots,  and  vain  for  our  country  be 
fore  we  are  vain  for  ourselves,  I  was  not  proof  against 
the  flattery  it  conveyed  to  me  civically  if  not  person 
ally. 


32        A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA. 

We  were  now  drawing  near  the  hotel,  and  I  felt  at 
certain  glow  of  pleasure  in  its  gay  effect,  on  the  pretty 
knoll  where  it  stood.  In  its  artless  and  accidental 
architecture  it  was  not  unlike  one  of  our  immense 
coastwise  steamboats.  The  twilight  had  thickened  to 
dusk,  and  the  edifice  was  brilliantly  lighted  with  elec 
trics,  story  above  story,  which  streamed  into  the 
gloom  around  like  the  lights  of  saloon  and  stateroom. 
The  corner  of  wood  making  into  the  meadow  hid  the 
station ;  there  was  no  other  building  in  sight ;  the 
hotel  seemed  riding  at  anchor  on  the  swell  of  a  placid 
sea.  I  was  going  to  call  the  Altrurian's  attention  to 
this  fanciful  resemblance  when  I  remembered  that  he 
had  not  been  in  our  country  long  enough  to  have 
seen  a  Fall  River  boat,  and  I  made  toward  the  house 
without  wasting  the  comparison  upon  him.  But  I 
treasured  it  up  in  my  own  mind,  intending  some  day 
to  make  a  literary  use  of  it. 

The  guests  were  sitting  in  friendly  groups  about 
the  piazzas  or  in  rows  against  the  walls,  the  ladies 
with  their  gossip  and  the  gentlemen  with  their  cigars. 
The  night  had  fallen  cool  after  a  hot  day,  and  they  all 
had  the  effect  of  having  cast  off  care  with  the  burden 
of  the  week  that  was  past  and  to  be  steeping  them- 


A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA.        33 

selves  in  the  innocent  and  simple  enjoyment  of  the 
hour.  They  were  mostly  middle-aged  married  folk, 
but  some  were  old  enough  to  have  sons  and  daughters 
among  the  young  people  who  went  and  came  in  a 
long,  wandering  promenade  of  the  piazzas,  or  wove 
themselves  through  the  waltz  past  the  open  windows 
of  the  great  parlor ;  the  music  seemed  one  with  the 
light  that  streamed  far  out  on  the  lawn  flanking  the 
piazzas.  Everyone  was  well  dressed  and  comfortable 
and  at  peace,  and  I  felt  that  our  hotel  was  in  some 
sort  a  microcosm  of  the  republic. 

We  involuntarily  paused,  and  I  heard  the  Altrurian 
murmur,  "  Charming,  charming !  This  is  really  de 
lightful  ! " 

"  Yes,  isn't  it  ? "  I  returned,  with  a  glow  of  pride. 
"  Our  hotel  here  is  a  type  of  the  summer  hotel  every 
where  ;  it's  characteristic  in  not  having  anything  char 
acteristic  about  it ;  and  I  rather  like  the  notion  of  the 
people  in  it  being  so  much  like  the  people  in  all  the 
others  that  you  would  feel  yourself  at  home  wherever 
you  met  such  a  company  in  such  a  house.  All  over 
the  country,  north  and  south,  wherever  you  find  a 
group  of  hills  or  a  pleasant  bit  of  water  or  a  stretch 
of  coast,  you'll  find  some  such  refuge  as  this  for  our 


34  A    TRAVELER    FROM    AI/TRURIA. 

weary  toilers.  We  began  to  discover  some  time  ago 
that  it  would  not  do  to  cut  open  the  goose  that  laid 
our  golden  eggs,  even  if  it  looked  like  an  eagle,  and 
kept  on  perching  on  our  banners  just  as  if  nothing 
had  happened.  We  discovered  that,  if  we  continued 
to  kill  ourselves  with  hard  work,  there  would  be  no 
Americans  pretty  soon." 

The  Altrurian  laughed.  "  How  delightfully  you 
put  it !  How  quaint !  How  picturesque  !  Excuse 
me,  but  I  can't  help  expressing  my  pleasure  in  it. 
Our  own  humor  is  so  very  different." 

"  Ah,  "  I  said  ;  "  what  is  your  humor  like  ? " 

"  I  could  hardly  tell  you,  I'm  afraid ;  I've  never 
been  much  of  a  humorist  myself." 

Again  a  cold  doubt  of  something  ironical  in  the 
man  went  through  me,  but  I  had  no  means  of  verify 
ing  it,  and  so  I  simply  remained  silent,  waiting  for 
him  to  prompt  me  if  he  wished  to  know  anything 
further  about  our  national  transformation  from  bees 
perpetually  busy  into  butterflies  occasionally  idle. 
"  And  when  you  had  made  that  discovery  ?  "  he  sug 
gested. 

"  Why,  we're  nothing  if  not  practical,  you  know, 
and  as  soon  as  we  made  that  discovery  we  stopped 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTIiURIA.  35 

killing  ourselves  and  invented  the  summer  resort. 
There  are  very  few  of  our  business  or  professional 
men,  now,  who  don't  take  their  four  or  five  weekst 
vacation.  Their  wives  go  off  early  in  the  summer, 
and  if  they  go  to  some  resort  within  three  or  four 
hours  of  the  city,  the  men  leave  town  Saturday  after 
noon  and  run  out,  or  come  up,  and  spend  Sunday 
with  their  families.  For  thirty-eight  hours  or  so,  a 
hotel  like  this  is  a  nest  of  happy  homes." 

"  That  is  admirable,"  said  the  Altrurian.  "  You 
arc  truly  a  practical  people.  The  ladies  come  early 
in  the  summer,  you  say?" 

"  Yes,  sometimes  in  the  beginning  of  June." 

"  What  do  they  come  for  ? "  asked  the  Altrurian. 

"  What  for  ?  Why,  for  rest  !  "  I  retorted  with 
some  little  temper. 

"  But  I  thought  you  told  me  awhile  ago  that  as 
soon  as  a  husband  could  afford  it  he  relieved  his  wife 
and  daughters  from  all  household  work." 

"  So  he  does." 

"  Then  what  do  the  ladies  wish  to  rest  from  ? " 

"  From  care.  It  is  not  work  alone  that  kills. 
They  are  not  relieved  from  household  care  even  when 
they  are  relieved  from  household  work.  There  is 


36  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

nothing  so  killing  as  household  care.  Besides,  the 
sex  seems  to  be  born  tired.  To  be  sure,  there  arc 
spme  observers  of  our  life  who  contend  that  with  the 
advance  of  athletics  among  our  ladies,  with  boating 
and  bathing,  and  lawn-tennis  and  mountain  climbing 
and  freedom  from  care,  and  these  long  summers  of 
repose,  our  women  are  likely  to  become  as  superior  to 
the  men  physically  as  they  now  arc  intellectually.  It 
is  all  right.  We  should  like  to  sec  it  happen.  It 
would  be  part  of  the  national  joke  ? " 

"  Oh,  have  you  a  national  joke  ?  "  asked  the  Altru- 
rian.  "  But,  of  course  !  You  have  so  much  humor. 
I  wish  you  could  give  me  some  notion  of  it." 

"Well,  it  is  rather  damaging  to  any  joke  to  explain 
it,"  I  replied,  "  and  your  only  hope  of  getting  at  ours 
is  to  live  into  it.  One  feature  of  it  is  the  confusion 
of  foreigners  at  the  sight  of  our  men's  willingness  to 
subordinate  themselves  to  our  women." 

"  Oh,  I  don't  find  that  very  bewildering,"  said  the 
Altrurian.  "  It  seems  to  me  a  generous  and  manly 
trait  of  the  American  character.  I'm  proud  to  say 
that  it  is  one  of  the  points  at  which  your  civilization 
and  our  own  touch.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the 
influence  of  women  in  your  public  affairs  must  be  of 


A     TRAVELER    FROM      ALTRURIA.  37 

the  greatest  advantage  to  you  ;  it  has  been  so  with  us." 

I  turned  and  stared  at  him,  but  he  remained  in 
sensible  to  my  astonishment,  perhaps  because  it  was 
now  too  dark  for  him  to  sec  it.  "  Our  women  have 
no  influence  in  public  affairs,"  I  said  quietly,  after  a 
moment. 

"  They  haven't  ?  Is  it  possible  ?  But  didn't  I  un 
derstand  you  to  imply  just  now  that  your  women 
were  better  educated  than  your  men  ? " 

"  Well,  I  suppose  that,  taking  all  sorts  and  condi 
tions  among  us,  the  women  arc  as  a  rule  better 
schooled,  if  not  better  educated." 

"  Then,  apart  from  the  schooling,  they  are  not 
more  cultivated  ? " 

"  In  a  sense  you  might  say  they  were.  They  cer 
tainly  go  in  for  a  lot  of  things :  art  and  music,  and 
Browning  and  the  drama,  and  foreign  travel  and 
psychology,  and  political  economy  and  heaven  knows 
what  all.  They  have  more  leisure  for  it ;  they  have 
all  the  leisure  there  is,  in  fact ;  our  young  men  have 
to  go  into  business.  I  suppose  you  may  say  our 
women  are  more  cultivated  than  our  men;  yes,  I 
think  there's  no  questioning  that.  They  arc  the  great 
readers  among  us.  We  poor  devils  of  authors  would 


38  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

be  badly  off  if  it  were  not  for  our  women.  In  fact, 
no  author  could  make  a  reputation  among  us  without 
them.  American  literature  exists  because  American 
women  appreciate  it  and  love  it." 

"  But  surely  your  men  read  books  ?  " 

"Some  of  them ;  not  many,  comparatively.  You 
will  often  hear  a  complacent  ass  of  a  husband  and 
father  say  to  an  author :  '  My  wife  and  daughters 
know  your  books,  but  I  can't  find  time  for  anything 
but  the  papers  nowadays.  I  skim  them  over  at 
breakfast,  or  when  I'm  going  in  to  business  on  the 
train.'  He  isn't  the  least  ashamed  to  say  that  he 
reads  nothing  but  the  newspapers." 

"  Then  you  think  that  it  would  be  better  for  him 
to  read  books? " 

"  Well,  in  the  presence  of  four  or  five  thousand 
journalists  with  drawn  scalping  knives  I  should  not 
like  to  say  so.  Besides,  modesty  forbids." 

"  No,  but  really,"  the  Altrurian  persisted,  "  you 
think  that  the  literature  of  a  book  is  more  carefully 
pondered  than  the  literature  of  a  daily  newspaper  ?  " 

"  I  suppose  even  the  four  or  five  thousand  journal 
ists  with  drawn  scalping  knives  would  hardly  deny 
that." 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  39 

"  And  it  stands  to  reason,  doesn't  it,  that  the 
habitual  reader  of  carefully  pondered  literature  ought 
to  be  more  thoughtful  than  the  readers  of  literature 
which  is  not  carefully  pondered,  and  which  they 
merely  skim  over  on  their  way  to  business  ? " 

"  I  believe  we  began  by  assuming  the  superior 
culture  of  our  women,  didn't  we  ?  You'll  hardly  find 
an  American  that  isn't  proud  of  it." 

"  Then,"  said  the  Altrurian,  "  if  your  women  are 
generally  better  schooled  than  your  men,  and  more 
cultivated  and  more  thoughtful,  and  are  relieved  of 
household  work  in  such  great  measure,  and  even  of 
domestic  cares,  why  have  they  no  part  in  your  public 
affairs  ? " 

I  laughed,  for  I  thought  I  had  my  friend  at  last. 
"  For  the  best  of  all  possible  reasons ;  they  don't 
want  it." 

"  Ah,  that's  no  reason,"  he  returned.  "  Why  don't 
they  want  it  ?  " 

"  Really,"  I  said,  out  of  all  patience,  "  I  think  I 
must  let  you  ask  the  ladies  themselves,"  and  I  turned 
and  moved  again  toward  the  hotel,  but  the  Altrurian 
gently  detained  me. 

"  Excuse  me,"  he  began. 


40  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

"  No,  no,"  I  said  : 

*  The  feast  is  set,  the  guests  are  met, 

May'st  hear  the  merry  din.' 
Come  in  and  see  the  young  people  dance ! " 

"  Wait,"  he  entreated,  "  tell  me  a  little  more  about 
the  old  people  first.  This  digression  about  the  ladies 
has  been  very  interesting,  but  I  thought  you  were  go 
ing  to  speak  of  the  men  here.  Who  are  they,  or 
rather,  what  are  they  ?  " 

"  Why,  as  I  said  before,  they  are  all  business  men 
and  professional  men  ;  people  who  spend  their  lives 
in  studies  and  counting  rooms  and  offices^  and  have 
come  up  here  for  a  few  weeks  or  a  few  days  of  well- 
earned  repose.  They  are  of  all  kinds  of  occupations : 
they  are  lawyers  and  doctors  and  clergymen  and  mer 
chants  and  brokers  and  brokers.  There's  hardly  any 
calling  you  won't  find  represented  among  them.  As 
I  was  thinking  just  now,  our  hotel  is  a  sort  of  micro 
cosm  of  the  American  republic." 

"  I  am  most  fortunate  in  finding  you  here,  where  I 
can  avail  myself  of  your  intelligence  in  making  my 
observations  of  your  life  under  such  advantageous  cir 
cumstances.  It  seems  to  me  that  with  your  help  I 
might  penetrate  the  fact  of  American  life,  possess  my 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  41 

self  of  the  mystery  of  your  national  joke,  without  stir 
ring  beyond  the  piazza  of  your  hospitable  hotel,"  said 
my  friend.  I  doubted  it,  but  one  does  not  lightly  put 
aside  a  compliment  like  that  to  one's  intelligence,  and 
I  said  I  should  be  very  happy  to  be  of  use  to  him. 
He  thanked  me,  and  said,  "  Then,  to  begin  with,  I 
understand  that  these  gentlemen  are  here  because  they 
are  all  overworked." 

"  Of  course.  You  can  have  no  conception  of  how 
hard  our  business  men  and  our  professional  men  work. 
I  suppose  there  is  nothing  like  it  anywhere  else  in  the 
world.  But,  as  I  said  before,  we  are  beginning  to 
find  that  we  cannot  burn  the  candle  at  both  ends  and 
have  it  last  long.  So 'we  put  one  end  out  for  a  little 
while  every  summer.  Still,  there  are  frightful  wrecks 
of  men  strewn  all  along  thy,-  course  of  our  prosperity, 
wrecks  of  mind  and  body.  Our  insane  asylums  are 
full  of  madmen  who  have  broken  under  the  tremen 
dous  strain,  and  every  country  in  Europe  abounds  in 
our  dyspeptics."  I  was  rather  proud  of  this  terrible 
fact ;  there  is  no  doubt  but  we  Americans  are  proud 
of  overworking  ourselves;  heaven  knows  why. 

The  Altrurian  murmured,  "Awful !  Shocking  !  " 
but  I  thought  some  how  he  had  not  really  followed  me 


42  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

very  attentively  in  my  celebration  of  our  national  vio 
lation  of  the  laws  of  life  and  its  consequences.  "  I 
am  glad,"  he  went  on,  "  that  your  business  men  and 
professional  men  are  beginning  to  realize  the  folly  and 
wickedness  of  overwork.  Shall  I  find  some  of  your 
other  weary  workers  here,  too  ?  " 

"What  other  weary  workers?"  I  asked  in  turn,  for 
I  imagined  I  had  gone  over  pretty  much  the  whole 
list. 

"  Why,"  said  the  Altrurian,  "  your  mechanics  and 
day  laborers,  your  iron  moulders  and  glass  blowers, 
your  miners  and  farmers,  your  printers  and  mill 
operatives,  your  trainmen  and  quarry  hands.  Or  do 
they  prefer  to  go  to  resorts  of  their  own  ?  " 


Ill 

IT  was  not  easy  to  make  sure  of  such  innocence  as 
prompted  this  inquiry  of  my  Altrurian  friend.  The 
doubt  whether  he  could  really  be  in  earnest  was  some 
thing  that  I  had  already  felt ;  and  it  was  destined  to 
beset  me,  as  it  did  now,  again  and  again.  •  My  first 
thought  was  that  of  course'  he  was  trying  a  bit  of 
cheap  irony  on  me,  a  mixture  of  the  feeble  sarcasm 
and  false  sentiment  that  makes  us  smile  when  we  find 
it  in  the  philippics  of  the  industrial  agitators.  For  a 
moment  I  did  not  know  but  I  had  fallen  victim  to  a 
walking-delegate  on  his  vacation,  who  was  employing 
his  summer  leisure  in  going  about  the  country  in  the 
guise  of  a  traveler  from  Altruria,  and  foisting  himself 
upon  people  who  would  have  had  nothing  to  do  with 
him  in  his  real  character.  But  in  another  moment  I 
perceived  that  this  was  impossible.  I  could  not  sup 
pose  that  the  friend  who  had  introduced  him  to  me 
would  be  capable  of  seconding  so  poor  a  joke,  and  be- 


44  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

sides  I  could  not  imagine  why  a  walking-delegate 
should  wish  to  address  his  clumsy  satire  to  me  partic 
ularly.  For  the  present,  at  least,  there  was  nothing 
for  it  but  to  deal  with  this  inquiry  as  if  it  were  made 
in  good  faith,  and  in  the  pursuit  of  useful  information. 
It  struck  me  as  grotesque ;  but  it  would  not  have  been 
decent  to  treat  it  as  if  it  were  so.  I  was  obliged  to 
regard  it  seriously,  and  so  I  decided  to  shirk  it. 

"  Well,"  I  said,  "that  opens  up  rather  a  large  field, 
which  lies  somewhat  outside  of  the  province  of  my 
own  activities.  You  know,  I  am  a  writer  of  romantic 
fiction,  and  my  time  is  so  fully  occupied  in  manipu 
lating  the  destinies  of  the  good  old-fashioned  hero 
and  heroine,  and  trying  always  to  make  them  end  in 
a  happy  marriage,  that  I  have  hardly  had  a  chance  to 
look  much  into  the  lives- of  agriculturists  or  artisans; 
and  to  tell  you  the  truth  I  don't  know  what  they  do 
with  .their  leisure.  I'm  pretty  certain,  though,  you 
won't  meet  any  of  them  in  this  hotel ;  they  couldn't 
afford  it,  and  I  fancy  they  would  find  themselves  out 
of  their  element  among  our  guests.  We  respect  them 
thoroughly  ;  every  American  does ;  and  we  know  that 
the  prosperity  of  the  country  rests  with  them ;  we 
have  a  theory  that  they  are  politically  sovereign,  but 


A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA.        45 

we  see  very  little  of  them,  and  we  don't  associate  with 
them.  In  fact,  our  cultivated  people  have  so  little 
interest  in  them  socially  that  they  don't  like  to  meet 
them,  even  in  fiction  ;  they  prefer  refined  and  polished 
ladies  and  gentlemen,  whom  they  can  have  some  sym 
pathy  with ;  and  I  always  go  to  the  upper  classes  for 
my  types.  It  won't  do  to  suppose,  though,  that  we 
arc  indifferent  to  the  working-classes  in  their  place. 
Their  condition  is  being  studied  a  good  deal  just  now, 
and  there  are  several  persons  here  who  will  be  able  to 
satisfy  your  curiosity  on  the  points  you  have  made,  I 
think.  I  will  introduce  you  to  them." 

The  Altrurian  did  not  try  to  detain  me  this  time. 
He  said  he  should  be  very  glad  indeed  to  meet  my 
friends,  and  I  led  the  way  toward  a  little  group  at  the 
corner  of  the  piazza.  They  were  men  whom  I  partic 
ularly  liked,  for  one  reason  or  another ;  they  were 
intelligent  and  open-minded,  and  they  were  thoroughly 
American.  One  was  a  banker ;  another  was  a  minis 
ter  ;  there  was  a  lawyer,  and  there  was  a  doctor ;  there 
was  a  professor  of  political  economy  in  one  of  our 
colleges  ;  and  there  was  a  retired  manufacturer — I  do 
not  know  what  he  used  to  manufacture :  cotton  or 
iron,  or  something  like  that.  They  all  rose  politely 


46  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

as  I  came  up  with  my  Altrurian,  and  I  fancied  in 
them  a  sensation  of  expectancy  created  by  the  rumor 
of  his  eccentric  behavior  which  must  have  spread 
through  the  hotel.  But  they  controlled  this  if  they 
had  it,  and  I  could  see,  as  the  light  fell  upon  his  face 
from  a  spray  of  electrics  on  the  nearest  pillar,  that 
sort  of  liking  kindle  in  theirs  which  I  had  felt  myself 
at  first  sight  of  him. 

I  said,  "  Gentlemen,  I  wish  to  introduce  my  friend, 
Mr.  Homos,"  and  then  I  presented  them  severally  to 
him  by  name.  AVe  all  sat  down,  and  I  explained  : 
"  Mr.  Homos  is  from  Altruria.  He  is  visiting  our 
country  for  the  first  time,  and  is  greatly  interested  in 
the  working  of  our  institutions.  He  has  been  asking 
me  some  rather  hard  questions  about  certain  phases 
of  our  civilization  ;  and  the  fact  is  that  I  have  launched 
him  upon  you  because  I  don't  feel  quite  able  to  cope 
with  him." 

They  all  laughed  civilly  at  this  sally  of  mine,  but 
the  professor  asked,  with  a  sarcasm  that  I  thought  I 
hardly  merited,  "  What  point  in  our  polity  can  be  ob 
scured  to  the  author  of  *  Glove  and  Gauntlet '  and 
1  Airs  and  Graces '  ?  " 

They  all  laughed  again,  not  so  civilly,  I  felt,  and 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    AI/TRURIA.  47 

then  the  banker  asked  ray  friend,  "Is  it  long  since 
you  left  Altruria?" 

"  It  seems  a  great  while  ago,"  the  Altrurian  an 
swered,  "  bnt  it  is  really  only  a  few  weeks." 

"  You  came  by  way  of  England,  I  suppose  ? " 

"  Yes  ;  there  is  no  direct  line  to  America,"  said  the 
Altrurian. 

"  That  seems  rather  odd,"  I  ventured,  with  some 
patriotic  grudge. 

"  Oh,  the  English  have  direct  lines  everywhere," 
the  banker  instructed  me. 

"  The  tariff  has  killed  our  shipbuilding,"  said  the 
professor.  No  one  took  up  this  firebrand,  and  the 
professor  added,  "  Your  name  is  Greek,  isn't  it,  Mr. 
Homos?"- 

"  Yes ;  we  are  of  one  of  the  early  Hellenic  fami 
lies,"  said  the  Altrurian. 

"  And  do  you  think,"  asked  the  lawyer,  who,  like 
most  lawyers,  was  a  lover  of  romance,  and  was  well 
read  in  legendary  lore  especially,  "  that  there  is  any 
reason  for  supposing  that  Altruria  is  identical  with 
the  fabled  Atlantis  ?  " 

"  No,  I  can't  say  that  I  do.  We  have  no  traditions 
of  a  submergence  of  the  continent,  and  there  arc  only 


48        A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA. 

the  usual  evidences  of  a  glacial  epoch  which  you  find 
everywhere,  to  support  such  a  theory.  Besides,  our 
civilization  is  strictly  Christian,  and  dates  back  to  no 
earlier  period  than  that  of  the  first  Christian  commune 
after  Christ.  It  is  a  matter  of  history  with  us  that 
one  of  these  communists,  when  they  were  dispersed, 
brought  the  gospel  to  our  continent ;  he  was  cast  away 
on  our  eastern  coast  on  his  way  to  Britain." 

"  Yes,  we  know  that,"  the  minister  intervened, 
"  but  it  is  perfectly  astonishing  that  an  island  so  large 
as  Altruria  should  have  been  lost  to  the  knowledge  of 
the  rest  of  the  world  ever  since  the  beginning  of  our 
era.  You  would  hardly  think  that  there  was  a  space 
of  the  ocean's  surface  a  mile  square  which  had  not 
been  traversed  by  a  thousand  keels  since  Columbus 
sailed  westward." 

"  No,  you  wouldn't.  And  I  wish,"  the  doctor  sug 
gested  in  his  turn,  "  that  Mr.  Homos  would  tell  us 
something  about  his  country,  instead  of  asking  us 
about  ours." 

"  Yes,"  I  coincided,  "  I'm  sure  we  should  all  find  it 
a  good  deal  easier.  At  least  I  should  ;  but  I  brought 
our  friend  up  in  the  hope  that  the  professor  would  like 
nothing  better  than  to  train  a  battery  of  hard  facts 


A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA.        49 

upon  a  defenseless  stranger."  Since  the  professor 
had  given  me  that  little  stab,  I  was  rather  anxious  to 
sec  how  he  would  handle  the  desire  for  information 
in  the  Altrurian  which  I  had  found  so  prickly. 

This  turned  the  laugh  on  the  professor,  and  he 
pretended  to  be  as  curious  about  Altruria  as  the  rest, 
and  said  he  would  rather  hear  of  it.  But  the  Altru 
rian  said  :  "I  hope  you  will  excuse  me.  Sometime  I 
shall  be  glad  to  talk  of  Altruria  as  long  as  you  like ; 
or  if  you  will  come  to  us,  I  shall  be  still  happier  to 
show  you  many  things  that  I  couldn't  make  you  un 
derstand  at  a .:.!  stance.  But  I  am  in  America  to  learn, 
not  to  teach,  and  I  hope  you  will  have  patience  with 
my  ignorance.  I  begin  to  be  afraid  that  it  is  so  great 
as  to  seem  a  little  incredible.  I  have  fancied  in  my 
friend  here,"  he  went  on,  with  a  smile  toward  me,  "  a 
suspicion  that  I  was  not  entirely  single  in  some  of  the 
inquiries  I  have  made,  but  that  I  had  some  ulterior 
motive,  some  wish  to  censure  or  satirize." 

"  Oh,  not  at  all !  "  I  protested,  for  it  was  not  polite 
to  admit  a  conjecture  so  accurate.  "  We  are  so  well 
satisfied  with  our  condition  that  we  have  nothing  but 
pity  for  the  darkened  mind  of  the  foreigner,  though  we 
believe  in  it  fully:  we  are  used  to  the  English  tourist." 


50        A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA. 

My  friends  laughed,  and  the  Altrurian  continued  : 
"  I  am  very  glad  to  hear  it,  for  I  feel  myself  at  a 
peculiar  disadvantage  among  you.  I  am  not  only  a 
foreigner,  but  I  am  so  alien  to  you  in  all  the  traditions 
and  habitudes  that  I  find  it  very  difficult  to  get  upon 
common  ground  with  you.  Of  course  I  know  theo 
retically  what  you  are,  but  to  realize  it  practically  is 
another  thing.  I  had  read  so  much  about  America 
and  understood  so  little  that  I  could  not  rest  without 
coming  to  see  for  myself.  Some  of  the  apparent  con 
tradictions  were  so  colossal" — 

"  We  have  everything  on  a  large  scale  here,"  said 
the  banker,  breaking  off  the  ash  of  his  cigar  with  the 
end  of  his  little  finger,  "and  we  rather  pride  ourselves 
on  the  size  of  our  inconsistencies,  even.  I  know 
something  of  the  state  of  things  in  Altruria,  and,  to 
be  frank  with  you,  I  will  say  that  it  seems  to  me  pre 
posterous.  I  should  say  it  was  impossible,  if  it  were 
not  an  accomplished  fact ;  but  I  always  feel  bound  to 
recognize  the  thing  done.  You  have  hitched  your 
wagon  to  a  star  and  you  have  made  the  star  go ;  there 
is  never  any  trouble  with  wagons,  but  stars  are  not 
easily  broken  to  harness,  and  you  have  managed  to 
get  yours  well  in  hand.  As  I  said,  1  don't  believe  in 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRTJRIA.  51 

you,  but  I  respect  you."  I  thought  this  charming, 
myself;  perhaps  because  it  stated  my  own  mind  about 
Altruria  so  exactly  and  in  terms  so  just  and  generous. 

"  Pretty  good,"  said  the  doctor,  in  a  murmur  of 
satisfaction,  at  my  ear,  "  for  a  bloated  bond-holder." 

"  Yes,"  I  whispered  back,  "  I  wish  I  had  said  it. 
What  an  American  way  of  putting  it !  Emerson 
would  have  liked  it  himself.  After  all,  he  was  our 
prophet." 

"  He  must  have  thought  so  from  the  way  we  kept 
stoning  him,"  said  the  doctor,  with  a  soft  laugh. 

"  Which  of  our  contradictions,"  asked  the  banker, 
in  the  same  tone  of  gentle  bonhomie,  "  has  given  you 
and  our  friend  pause,  just  now  ? " 

The  Altrurian  answered  after  a  moment :  "I  am 
not  sure  that  it  is  a  contradiction,  for  as  yet  I  have 
not  ascertained  the  facts  I  was  seeking.  Our  friend 
was  telling  me  of  the  great  change  that  had  taken 
place  in  regard  to  work,  and  the  increased  leisure 
that  your  professional  people  are  now  allowing  them 
selves  ;  and  I  was  asking  him  where  your  workingmen 
spent  their  leisure." 

He  went  over  the  list  of  those  lie  had  specified, 
and  I  hung  my  head  in  shame  and  pity  ;  it  really  had 


52  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTUUEIA. 

such  an  effect  of  mawkish  sentimentality.  But  my 
friends  received  it  in  the  best  possible  way.  They 
did  not  laugh  ;  they  heard  him  out,  and  then  they 
quietly  deferred  to  the  banker,  who  made  answer  for 
us  all : 

"  Well,  I  can  be  almost  as  brief  as  the  historian  of 
Iceland  in  his  chapter  on  snakes  :  those  people  have 
no  leisure  to  spend." 

"  Except  when  they  go  out  on  a  strike,  "  said  the 
manufacturer,  with  a  certain  grim  humor  of  his  own  ; 
I  never  heard  anything  more  dramatic  than  the  ac 
count  he  once  gave  of  the  way  he  broke  up  a  labor- 
union.  "  I  have  seen  a  good  many  of  them  at  leisure 
then." 

"  Yes,  "  the  doctor  chimed  in,  "  and  in  my  younger 
days,  when  I  necessarily  had  a  good  deal  of  charity- 
practice,  I  used  to  find  them  at  leisure  when  they 
were  *  laid  off.'  It  always  struck  me  as  such  a  pretty 
euphemism.  It  seemed  to  minify  the  harm  of  the 
thing  so.  It  seemed  to  take  all  the  hunger  and  cold 
and  sickness  out  of  the  fact.  To  be  simply  '  laid  off ' 
was  so  different  from  losing  youj*  work  and  having  to 
face  beggary  or  starvation  !  " 

"  Those  people, "  said  the    professor,  "  never  put 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  53 

anything  by.  They  arc  wasteful  and  improvident, 
almost  to  a  man ;  and  they  learn  nothing  by  experi 
ence,  though  they  know  as  well  as  we  do  that  it  is 
simply  a  question  of  demand  and  supply,  and  that  the 
day  of  overproduction  is  sure  to  come,  when  their 
work  must  stop  unless  the  men  that  give  them  work 
arc  willing  to  lose  money." 

"  And  I've  seen  them  lose  it,  sometimes,  rather 
than  shut  down,  "  the  manufacturer  remarked  ;  "lose 
it  hand  over  hand,  to  keep  the  men  at  work ;  and 
then  as  soon  as  the  tide  turned  the  men  would  strike 
for  higher  wages.  You  have  no  idea  of  the  ingrati 
tude  of  those  people."  He  said  this  towards  the 
minister,  as  if  he  did  not  wish  to  be  thought  hard ; 
and  in  fact  he  was  a  very  kindly  man. 

"  Yes,  "  replied  the  minister,  "that  is  one  of  the 
most  sinister  features  of  the  situation.  They  seem 
really  to  regard  their  employers  as  their  enemies,  j 
don't  know  how  it  will  end." 

"  I  know  how  it  would  end  if  I  had  my  way,  " 
said  the  professor.  "  There  wouldn't  be  any  labor- 
unions,  and  there  wouldn't  be  any  strikes." 

"  That  is  all  very  well,  "  said  the  lawyer,  from  that 
judicial  mind  which  I  always  liked  in  him,  "  as  far  as 


54        A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA. 

the  strikes  are  concerned,  but  I  don't  understand  that 
the  abolition  of  the  unions  would  affect  the  imperson 
al  process  of  laying-off.  The  law  of  demand  and 
supply  I  respect  as  much  as  any  one — it's  something 
like  the  constitution ;  but  all  the  same  I  should  object 
extremely  to  have  my  income  stopped  by  it  every 
now  and  then.  I'm  probably  not  so  wasteful  as  a 
workingman  generally  is ;  still  I  haven't  laid  by 
enough  to  make  it  a  matter  of  indifference  to  me 
whether  my  income  went  on  or  not.  Perhaps  the 
professor  has."  The  professor  did  not  say,  and  we 
all  took  leave  to  laugh.  The  lawyer  concluded,  "  I 
don't  see  how  those  fellows  stand  it." 

"  They  don't,  all  of  them,  "  said  the  doctor.  "  Or 
their  wives  and  children  don't.  Some  of  them  die." 

"  I  wonder,  "  the  lawyer  pursued,  "  what  has  be 
come  of  the  good  old  American  fact  that  there  is 
always  work  for  those  who  are  willing  to  work  ?  I 
notice  that  wherever  five  thousand  men  strike  in  the 
forenoon,  there  are  five  thousand  men  to  take  their 
places  in  the  afternoon — and  not  men  who  are  turn 
ing  their  hands  to  something  new,  but  men  who  are 
used  to  doing  the  very  thing  the  strikers  have  done.  " 

"That  is  one  of  the  things  that  teach  the  futility 


A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA.         55 

of  strikes,  "  tlic  professor  made  haste  to  interpose,  as 
if  he  had  not  quite  liked  to  appear  averse  to  the  in 
terests  of  the  workman  ;  no  one  likes  to  do  that. 
"  If  there  were  anything  at  all  to  be  hoped  from  them 
it  would  be  another  matter." 

"  Yes,  but  that  isn't  the  point,  quite,  "  said  the 
the  lawyer. 

"  By  the  way,  what  is  the  point?"  I  asked,  with 
my  humorous  lightness. 

"  "Why,  I  supposed,  "  said  the  banker,  "  it  was  the 
question  how  the  working-classes  amused  their  elegant 
leisure.  But  it  seems  to  be  almost  anything  else." 

We  all  applauded  the  neat  touch,  but  the  Altrurian 
eagerly  entreated  :  "  No,  no  !  never  mind  that,  now. 
That  is  a  matter  of  comparatively  little  interest.  I 
would  so  much  rather  know  something  about  the 
status  of  the  working-man  among  you." 

"  Do  you  mean  his  political  status  ?  It's  that  of 
every  other  citizen." 

"  I  don't  mean  that.  I  suppose  that  in  America 
you  have  learned,  as  we  have  in  Altruria,  that  equal 
political  rights  are  only  means  to  an  end,  and  as  an 
end  have  no  value  or  reality.  I  meant  the  economic 
status  of  the  workingman,  and  his  social  status." 


56  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

I  do  not  know  why  we  were  so  long  girding  up  our 
loins  to  meet  this  simple  question.  I  myself  could 
not  have  hopefully  undertaken  to  answer  it :  but  the 
others  were  each  in  their  way  men  of  affairs,  and 
practically  acquainted  with  the  facts,  except  perhaps 
the  professor ;  but  he  had  devoted  a  great  deal  of 
thought  to  them,  and  ought  to  have  been  qualified  to 
make  some  some  sort  of  response.  But  even  he  was 
silent ;  and  I  had  a  vague  feeling  that  they  were  all 
somehow  reluctant  to  formulate  their  knowledge,  as 
if  it  were  uncomfortable  or  discreditable.  The  bank 
er  continued  to  smoke  quietly  on  for  a  moment ;  then 
he  suddenly  threw  his  cigar  away. 

"I  like  to  free  my  mind  of  cant,  "  he  said,  with  a 
short  laugh,  "when  I  can  afford  it,  and  I  propose  to 
cast  all  sorts  of  American  cant  out  of  it,  in  answering 
your  question.  The  economic  status  of  the  working- 
man  among  us  is  essentially  the  same  as  that  of  the 
workingman  all  over  the  civilized  world.  You  will 
find  plent}?-  of  people  here,  especially  about  election 
time,  to  tell  you  differently,  but  they  will  not  be  tell 
ing  you  the  truth,  though  a  great  many  of  them  think 
they  are.  In  fact,  I  suppose  most  Americans  hon 
estly  believe  because  we  have  a  republican  form  of 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  57 

government,  and  manhood-suffrage,  and  so  on,  that 
our  economic  conditions  are  peculiar,  and  that  our 
workininnan  has  a  status  higher  and  better  than  that 

O  O 

of  the  workingman  anywhere  else.  But  he  has  noth 
ing  of  the  kind.  His  circumstances  arc  better,  and 
provisionally  his  wages  are  higher,  but  it  is  only  a 
question  of  years  or  decades  when  his  circumstances 
will  be  the  same  and  his  Ava^cs  the  same  as  the 

O 

European  workingman's.  There  is  nothing  in  our 
conditions  to  prevent  this." 

"  Yes,  I  understood  from  our  friend  here, "  said 
the  Altrurian,  nodding  toward  me^  "that  you  had 
broken  only  with  the  political  tradition  of  Europe,  in 
your  revolution ;  and  he  has  explained  to  me  that 
you  do  not  hold  all  kinds  of  labor  in  equal  esteem ; 
but"— 

"  What  kind  of  labor  did  he  say  we  did  hold  in 
esteem  ?  "  asked  the  banker. 

"  Why,  I  understood  him  to  say  that  if  America 
meant  anything  at  all  it  meant  the  honor  of  work,  but 
that  you  distinguished  and  did  not  honor  some  kinds 
of  work  so  much  as  others:  for  instance,  domestic 
service,  or  personal  attendance  of  any  kind." 

The  banker  laughed  again.     "Oh,  he  drew  the  line 


58  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

there,  did  lie  ?  Well,  we  all  have  to  draw  the  line 
somewhere.  Our  friend  is  a  novelist,  and  I  will  tell 
you  in  strict  confidence  that  the  line  he  has  drawn  is 
imaginary.  We  don't  honor  any  kind  of  work  any 
more  than  any  other  people.  If  a  fellow  gets  up,  the 
papers  make  a  great  ado  over  his  having  been  a 
wood-chopper,  or  a  bobbin-boy,  or  something  of  that 
kind,  but  I  doubt  if  the  fellow  himself  likes  it ;  he 
dosen't  if  he's  got  any  sense.  The  rest  of  us  feel 
that  it's  infra  dig.,  and  hope  nobody  will  find  out 
that  we  ever  worked  with  our  hands  for  a  living. 
I'll  go  farther,"  said  the  banker, -with  the  effect  of 
whistling  prudence  down  the  wind,  "  and  I  will 
challenge  any  of  you  to  gainsay  me  from  his  own 
experience  or  observation.  How  does  esteem  usually 
express  itself  ?  When  we  wish  to  honor  a  man,  what 
do  we  do  ?  " 

"  Ask  him  to  dinner,  "  said  the  lawyer. 

"Exactly.  We  offer  him  some  sort  of  social  recog 
nition.  Well,  as  soon  as  a  fellow  gets  up,  if  he  gets 
up  high  enough,  we  offer  him  some  sort  of  social 
recognition  ;  in  fact,  all  sorts  ;  but  upon  condition 
that  he  has  left  off  working  with  his  hands  for  a 
living.  We  forgive  all  you  please  to  his  past  on  ac- 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  59 

count  of  the  present.  But  there  isn't  a  workingman  I 
venture  to  say,  in  any  city,  or  town,  or  even  large  vil 
lage,  in  the  whole  length  and  breadth  of  the  United 
States  who  has  any  social  recognition,  if  he  is  still 
working  at  his  trade.  I  don't  mean,  merely,  that  he 
is  excluded  from  rich  and  fashionable  society,  but 
from  the  society  of  the  average  educated  and  culti 
vated  people.  I'm  not  saying  he  is  fit  for  it ;  but  I 
don't  care  how  intelligent  and  agreeable  he  might 
be — and  some  of  them  arc  astonishingly  intelligent, 
and  so  agreeable  in  their  tone  of  mind,  and  their 
original  way  of  looking  at  things,  that  I  like  nothing- 
better  than  to  talk  with  them — all  of  our  invisible 
fences  are  up  against  him." 

The  minister  said  :  "I  wonder  if  that  sort  of  cxclti- 
siveness  is  quite  natural  ?  Children  seem  to  feel  no 
sort  of  social  difference  among  themselves." 

"  We  can  hardly  go  to  children  for  a  type  of  social 
order,  "  the  professor  suggested. 

"  True,  "  the  minister  meekly  admitted.  "But 
somehow  there  is  a  protest  in  us  somewhere  against 
these  arbitrary  distinctions  ;  something  that  questions 
whether  they  are  altogether  right.  We  know  that 
they  must  be,  and  always  have  been,  and  always  will 


60  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

be,  and  yet — well,  I  will  confess  it — I  never  feel  at 
peace  when  I  face  them." 

"  Oh,  "  said  the  banker,  "  if  you  come  to  the 
question  of  right  and  wrong,  that  is  another  matter. 
I  don't  say  it's  right.  I'm  not  discussing  that  ques 
tion  ;  though  I'm  certainly  not  proposing  to  level  the 
fences ;  I  should  be  the  last  to  take  my  own  down. 
I  say  simply  that  you  are  no  more  likely  to  meet  a 
workingman  in  American  society  than  you  are  to 
meet  a  colored  man.  Now  you  can  judge, "  he 
ended,  turning  directly  to  the  Altrurian,  "how  much 
we  honor  labor.  And  I  hope  I  have  indirectly  sat 
isfied  your  curiosity  as  to  the  social  status  of  the 
workingman  among  us." 

We  were  all  silent.  Perhaps  the  others  were 
occupied  like  myself  in  trying  to  recall  some  instance 
of  a  workingman  whom  they  had  met  in  society,  and 
perhaps  we  said  nothing  because  we  all  failed. 

The  Altrurian  spoke  at  last. 

"You  have  been  so  very  full  and  explicit  that  I 
feel  as  if  it  were  almost  unseemly  to  press  any 
further  inquiry  ;  but  I  should  very  much  like  to  know 
how  your  workingmcn  bear  this  social  exclusion." 

"  I'm  sure  I  can't  say,  "  returned  the  banker.     "  A 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  61 

man  does  not  care  much  to  get  into  society  until  he 
lias  something  to  eat,  and  how  to  get  that  is  always 
the  first  question  with  the  workingman.'1 

"  But  you  wouldn't  like  it  yourself  ?  " 

"  No,  certainly,  I  shouldn't  like  it  myself.  I 
shouldn't  complain  of  not  being  asked  to  people's 
houses,  and  the  workingmen  don't ;  you  can't  do 
that ;  but  I  should  feel  it  an  incalculable  loss.  We 
may  laugh  at  the  emptiness  of  society,  or  pretend  to 
be  sick  of  it,  but  there  is  no  doubt  that  society  is  the 
flower  of  civilization,  and  to  be  shut  out  from  it  is  to 
be  denied  the  best  privilege  of  a  civilized  man. 
There  are  society -women — we  have  all  met  them — 
vvhose  graciousness  and  refinement  of  presence  are 
'something  of  incomparable  value  ;  it  is  more  than  a 
liberal  education  to  have  been  admitted  to  it,  but  it  is 
as  inaccessible  to  the  workingman  as — what  shall  I 
say  ?  The  thing  is  too  grotesquely  impossible  for 
any  sort  of  comparison.  Merely  to  conceive  of  its 
possibility  is  something  that  passes  a  joke  ;  it  is  a 
kind  of  offence." 

Again  we  were  silent. 

"  I  don't  know, "  the  banker  continued,  how  the 
notion  of  our  social  equality  originated,  but  I  think 


62  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

it  has  been  fostered  mainly  by  the  expectation  of 
foreigners,  who  argued  it  from  our  political 
equality.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  never  existed, 
except  in  our  poorest  and  most  primitive  commun 
ities,  in  the  pioneer  days  of  the  West,  and  among 
the  gold-hunters  of  California.  It  was  not  dreamt 
of  in  our  colonial  society,  either  in  Virginia,  or 
Pennsylvania,  or  New  York,  or  Massachusetts ;  and 
the  fathers  of  the  republic,  ~who  were  mostly  slave 
holders,  were  practically  as  stiffnecked  aristocrats 
as  any  people  of  their  day.  AYe  have  not  a  polit 
ical  aristocracy,  that  is  all ;  but  there  is  as  abso 
lute  a  division  between  the  orders  of  men,  and  as 
little  love,  in  this  country  as  in  any  country  on 
the  globe.  The  severance  of  the  man  who  works 
for  his  living  with  his  hands  from  the  man  who 
does  not  work  for  his  living  Avith  his  hands  is  so 
complete,  and  apparently  so  final,  that  nobody  even 
imagines  anything  else,  not  even  in  fiction.  Or, 
how  is  that?"  he  asked,  turning  to  me.  "  Do  you 
fellows  still  put  the  intelligent,  high-spirited,  hand 
some  young  artisan,  who  wins  the  millionaire's 
daughter  into  your  books  ?  I  used  sometimes  to  find 
him  there." 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  63 

"You  might  still  find  ,him  in  the  fiction  of  the 
weekly  story-papers ;  but, "  I  was  obliged  to  own, 
"  he  would  not  go  down  with  my  readers.  Even  in 
the  story-paper  fiction  he  would  leave  off  working 
as  soon  as  he  married  the  millionaire's  daughter,  and 
go  to  Europe,  or  he  would  stay  here  and  become  a 
social  leader,  but  he  would  not  receive  workingmen 
in  his  gilded  halls." 

The  others  rewarded  my  humor  with  a  smile,  but 
the  banker  said :  "Then  I  wonder  you  were  uot 
ashamed  o"f  filling  our  friend  up  with  that  stuff  about 
our  honoring  some  kinds  of  labor.  It  is  true  that 
we  don't  go  about  openly  and  explicitly  despising  any 
kind  of  honest  toil — people  don't  do  that  anywhere, 
now ;  but  we  contemn  it  in  terms  quite  as  u  imistak- 
able.  The  workingrnan  acquiesces  as  completely  as 
anybody  else.  He  docs  not  remain  a  workingman  a 
moment  longer  than  he  can  help  ;  and  after  he  gets 
up,  if  he  is  weak  enough  to  be  proud  of  having  been 
one  it  is  because  he  feels  that  his  low  origin  is  a 
proof  of  his  prowess  in  rising  to  the  top  against 
unusual  odds.  I  don't  suppose  there  is  a  man  in 
the  whole  civilized  world — outside  of  Altruria,  of 

course — who  is    proud  of  working  at  a  trade,    except 
5 


64  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

the  shoemaker  Tolstoy,  and  he  is  a  count,  and  he 
docs  not  make  very  good  shoes." 

We  all  laughed  again :  those  shoes  of  Count 
Tolstoy's  arc  always  such  an  infallible  joke.  The 
Altrurian,  however,  was  cocked  and  primed  with  an 
other  question  ;  he  instantly  exploded  it.  "  But  arc 
all  the  workingmcn  in  America  eager  to  rise  above 
their  condition  ?  Is  there  none  willing  to  remain 
among  the  mass  because  the  rest  could  not  rise  with 
him,  and  from  the  hope  of  yet  bringing  labor  to 
honor  ?  " 

The  banker  answered  :  "  I  never  heard  of  any.  No, 
the  American  ideal  is  not  to  change  the  conditions  for 
all,  but  for  each  to  rise  above  the  rest  if  he  can." 

"Do  you  think  it  is  really  so  bad  as  that?"  asked 
the  minister  timidly. 

The  banker  answered :  "Bad?  Do  you  call  that 
bad  ?  I  thought  it  was  very  good.  But  good  or  bad, 
I  don't  think  you'll  find  it  deniable,  if  you  look  into 
the  facts.  There  may  be  workingmcn  willing  to  re 
main  so  for  other  workingmcn's  sake,  but  I  have  never 
met  any — perhaps  because  the  workingman  never 
goes  into  society." 

The  unfailing  question    of  the  Altrurian  broke   the 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  65 

silence  which  ensued  :  "  Are  there  many  of  your 
workingmen  who  are  intelligent  and  agreeable — of 
the  type  you  mentioned  a  moment  since  ? " 

"  Perhaps,  "  said  the  banker,  "I  had  better  refer 
you  to  one  of  our  friends  here,  who  has  had  a  great 
deal  more  to  do  with  them  than  I  have.  He  is  a 
manufacturer  and  he  has  had  to  do  with  all  kinds  of 
work-people.  " 

"  Yes,  for  my  sins,  "  the  manufacturer  assented  ; 
and  he  added,  "  They  are  often  confoundedly  intel 
ligent,  though  I  haven't  often  found  them  very  agr-™- 
able,  cither  in  their  tone  of  mind  or  their  original 
way  of  looking  at  things." 

The  banker  amiably  acknowledged  his  thrust,  and 
the  Altrurian  asked,  "  Ah,  they  are  opposed  to  your 
own  ? " 

"  Well,  we  have  the  same  trouble  here  that  you 
must  have  heard  of  in  England.  As  you  know  now 
that  the  conditions  are  the  same  here,  you  won't  be 
surprised  at  the  fact." 

"  But  the  conditions,"  the  Altrurian  pursued  ;  "  do 
you  expect  them  always  to  continue  the  same  ? " 

"Well,  I  don't  know,"  said  the  manufacturer. 
"  We  can't  expect  them  to  change  of  themselves,  and 


66  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

I  shouldn't  know  how  to  change  them.  It  was  ex 
pected  that  the  rise  of  the  trusts  and  the  syndicates 
would  break  the  unions,  but  somehow  they  haven't. 
The  situation  remains  the  same.  The  unions  are 
not  cutting  one  another's  throats,  now,  any  more  than 
we  are.  The  war  is  on  a  larger  scale — that's  all." 

"Then  let  me  see,"  said  the  Altrurian,  "  whether  I 
clearly  understand  the  situation,  as  regards  the  work- 
ingman  in  America.  He  is  dependent  upon  the  em 
ployer  for  his  chance  to  earn  a  living,  and  he  is  never 
sure  of  this.  He  may  be  thrown  out  of  work  by  his 
employer's  disfavor  or  disaster,  and  his  willingness  to 
work  goes  for  nothing  ;  there  is  no  public  provision 
of  work  for  him  ;  there  is  nothing  to  keep  him  from 
want,  nor  the  prospect  of  anything." 

"  We  are  all  in  the  same  boat,"  said  the  professor. 

"  But  some  of  us  have  provisioned  ourselves  rather 
better  and  can  generally  weather  it  through  till  we 
arc  picked  up,"  the  lawyer  put  in. 

"  I  am  always  saying  the  workingman  is  improvi 
dent,"  returned  the  professor. 

"  There  are  the  charities,"  the  minister  suggested. 

"  But  his  economical  status,"  the  Altrurian  pursued, 
"  is  in  a  state  of  perpetual  uncertainty,  and  to  save 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  67 

himself  in  some  measure  he  has  organized,  and  so  has 
constituted  himself  a  danger  to  the  public  peace  ?  " 

"  A  very  great  danger,"  said  the  professor. 

"  I  guess  we  can  manage  him,"  the  manufacturer 
remarked. 

"  And  socially  he  is  non-existent?  " 

The  Altrurian  turned  with  this  question  to  the 
banker,  who  said,  "  He  is  certainly  not  in  society." 

"  Then,"  said  my  guest,  "  if  the  workingman's 
wages  are  provisionally  so  much  better  here  than  in 
Europe,  why  should  they  be  discontented  ?  What  is 
the  real  cause  of  th'eir  discontent  ?  " 

I  have  always  been  suspicious,  in  the  company  of 
practical  men,  of  an  atmosphere  of  condescension  to 
men  of  my  calling,  if  nothing  worse.  I  fancy  they 
commonly  regard  artists  of  all  kinds  as  a  sort  of 
harmless  eccentrics,  and  that  literary  people  they  look 
upon  as  something  droll,  as  weak  and  soft,  as  not 
quite  right.  I  believed  that  this  particular  group,  in 
deed,  was  rather  abler  to  conceive  of  me  as  a  rational 
person  than  most  others,  but  I  knew  that  if  even  they 
had  expected  me  to  be  as  reasonable  as  themselves 
they  would  not  have  been  greatly  disappointed  if  I 
were  not ;  and  it  seemed  to  me  that  I  had  put  myself 


68  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

wrong  with  them  in  imparting  to  the  Altrurian  that 
romantic  impression  that  we  hold  labor  in  honor  here. 
I  had  really  thought  so,  but  I  could  not  say  so  now, 
and  I  wished  to  retrieve  myself  somehow.  I  wished 
to  show  that  I  was  a  practical  man,  too,  and  so  I  made 
answer :  "  What  is  the  cause  of  the  workingman's  dis 
content  ?  It  is  very  simple :  the  walking-delegate." 


IV. 


I  SUPPOSE  I  could  not  have  fairly  claimed  any  great 
originality  for  my  notion  that  the  walking-delegate 
was  the  cause  of  the  labor  troubles :  he  is  regularly 
assigned  as  the  reason  of  a  strike  in  the  newspapers, 
and  is  reprobated  for  his  evil  agency  by  the  editors, 
who  do  not  fail  to  read  the  workingmcn  many  solemn 
lessons,  and  fervently  warn  them  against  him,  as  soon 
as  the  strike  begins  to  go  wrong — as  it  nearly  always 
does.  I  understand  from  them  that  the  walking-del 
egate  is  an  irresponsible  tyrant,  who  emerges  from 
the  mystery  that  habitually  hides  him  and  from  time 
to  time  orders  a  strike  in  mere  rancor  of  spirit  and 
plenitude  of  power,  and  then  leaves  the  workingmen 
and  their  families  to  suffer  the  consequences,  while 


70  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

he  goes  off  somewhere  and  rolls  in  the  lap  of  luxury, 
careless  of  the  misery  he  has  created.  Between  his 
debauches  of  vicious  idleness  and  his  accesses  of  bale 
ful  activity  he  is  employed  in  poisoning  the  mind  of 
the  workingmen  against  his  real  interests  and  real 
friends.  This  is  perfectly  easy,  because  the  American 
workingmen,  though  singularly  shrewd  and  sensible 
in  other  respects,  is  the  victim  of  an  unaccountable 
obliquity  of  vision  which  keeps  him  from  seeing  his 
real  interests  and  real  friends — -or  at  least  from  know 
ing  them  when  he  sees  them. 

There  could  be  no  doubt,  I  thought,  in  the  mind  of 
any  reasonable  person  that  the  walking-delegate  was 
Tihe  source  of  the  discontent  among  our  proletariat, 
Mnd  I  alleged  him  with  a  confidence  which  met  the 
ajpproval  of  the  professor,  apparently,  for  he  nodded, 
afe  if  to  say  that  I  had  hit  the  nail  on  the  head  this 
time  ;  and  the  minister  seemed  to  be  freshly  impressed 
with  a  notion  that  could  not  be  new  to  him.  The 
lawyer  and  the  doctor  were  silent,  as  if  waiting  for 
the  banker  to  speak  again ;  but  he  was  silent,  too. 
The  manufacturer,  to  my  chagrin,  broke  into  a  laugh. 
"  I'm  afraid,"  he  said,  with  a^sardonic  levity  which 
surprised  me,  "  you'll  have  to  go  a  good  deal  deeper 


A    TRAVELER    PROM    ALTRURIA.  71 

than  the  walking-delegate.  He's  a  symptom ;  he  isn't 
the  disease.  The  thing  keeps  on  and  on,  and  it  seems 
to  be  always  about  wages ;  but  it  isn't  about  wages  at 
the  bottom.  Some  of  those  fellows  know  it  and 
some  of  them  don't,  but  the  real  discontent  is  with 
the  whole  system,  with  the  nature  of  things.  I  had 
a  curious  revelation  on  that  point  the  last  time  I  tried 
to  deal  with  my  men  as  a  union.  They  were  always 
bothering  me  about  this  and  about  that,  and  there 
was  no  end  to  the  bickering.  I  yielded  point  after 
point,  but  it  didn't  make  any  difference.  It  seemed 
as  if  the  more  I  gave  the  more  they  asked.  At  last 
I  made  up  my  mind  to  try  to  get  at  the  real  inward 
ness  of  the  matter,  and  I  didn't  wait  for  their  com 
mittee  to  come  to  me — I  sent  for  their  leading  man, 
and  said  I  wanted  to  have  it  out  with  him.  He  wasn't 
a  bad  fellow,  and  when  I  got  at  him,  man  to  man  that 
way,  I  found  he  had  sense,  and  he  had  ideas — it's  no 
use  pretending  those  fellows  are  fools  ;  he  had  thought 
about  his  side  of  the  question,  any  way.  I  said : 
*  Now  what  docs  it  all  mean  ?  Do  you  want  the 
earth,  or  don't  you  ?  When  is  it  going  to  end  ? '  I 
offered  him  something  to  take,  but  he  said  he  didn't 
drink,  and  we  compromised  on  cigars.  '  Now  when 


72  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

is  it  going  to  end  ? '  said  I,  and  I  pressed  it  home, 
and  wouldn't  let  him  fight  off  from  the  point.  *  Do 
you  mean  when  it  is  all  going  to  end  ? '  said  he. 
'Yes,'  said  I,  'all.  I'm  sick  of  it.  If  there's  any 
way  out  I'd  like  to  know  it.'  '  Well,'  said  he,  '  I'll 
tell  you,  if  you  want  to  know.  It's  all  going  to  end 
when  you  get  the  same  amount  of  money  for  the 
same  amount  of  work  as  we  do.' " 

We  all  laughed  uproariously.  The  thing  was  dc- 
liciously  comical ;  and  nothing,  I  thought,  attested 
the  Altrurian's  want  of  humor  like  his  failure  to 
appreciate  this  joke.  He  did  not  even  smile  in  ask 
ing,  "  And  what  did  you  say  ?  " 

"  Well,"  returned  the  manufacturer,  with  cosy  en 
joyment,  "  I  asked  him  if  the  men  would  take  the 
concern  and  run  it  themselves."  We  laughed  again  ; 
this  seemed  even  better  than  the  other  joke.  "  But 
he  said  '  No ; '  they  would  not  like  to  do  that.  And 
then  I  asked  him  just  what  they  would  like,  if  they 
could  have  their  own  way,  and  he  said  they  would 
like  to  have  me  run  the  business,  and  all  share  alike. 
I  asked  him  what  was  the  sense  of  that,  and  why  if 
I  could  do  something  that  all  of  them  put  together 
couldn't  do  I  shouldn't  be  paid  more  than  all  of  them 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  73 

put  together  ;  and  he  said  that  if  a  man  did  his  best  he 
ought  to  be  paid  as  much  as  the  best  man.  I  asked  him 
if  that  was  the  principle  their  union  was  founded  on, 
and  he  said l  Yes,'  that  the  very  meaning  of  their  union 
was  the  protection  of  the  weak  by  the  strong,  and  the 
equalization  of  earnings  among  all  who  do  their  best." 

We  waited  for  the  manufacturer  to  go  on,  but  he 
made  a  dramatic  pause  at  this  point,  as  if  to  let  it  sink 
into  our  minds ;  and  he  did  not  speak  until  the  Altru- 
rian  prompted  him  with  the  question,  "  And  what  did 
you  finally  do  ?  " 

"  I  saw  there  was  only  one  way  out  for  me,  and  I 
told  the  fellow  I  did  not  think  I  could  do  business 
on  that  principal.  We  parted  friends  but  the  next 
Saturday  I  locked  them  out,  and  smashed  their  union. 
They  came  back,  most  of  them — they  had  to — but 
I've  treated  with  them  ever  since  '  as  individuals.'  " 

"  And  they're  much  better  off  in  your  hands  than 
they  were  in  the  union,"  said  the  professor. 

"  I  don't  know  about  that,"  said  the  manufacturer, 
"  but  I'm  sure  I  am." 

We  laughed  with  him,  all  but  the  minister,  whose 
mind  seemed  to  have  caught  upon  some  other  point, 
and  who  sat  absently  by. 


74  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

"  And  is  it  your  opinion,  from  what  you  know  of 
the  workingmcn  generally,  that  they  all  have  this  twist 
in  their  heads  ? "  the  professor  asked. 

"  They  have,  until  they  begin  to  rise.  Then  they 
get  rid  of  it  mighty  soon.  Let  a  man  save  something 
— enough  to  get  a  house  of  his  own,  and  take  a 
boarder  or  two,  and  perhaps  have  a  little  money  at 
interest — and  he  sees  the  matter  in  another  light." 

"  Do  you  think  he  sees  it  more  clearly  ? "  asked 
the  minister. 

"  He  sees  it  differently." 

"  What  do  you  think  ?  "  the  minister  pursued,  turn 
ing  to  the  lawyer.  "You  are  used  to  dealing  with 
questions  of  justice" — 

"  Rather  more  with  questions  of  law,  I'm  afraid," 
the  other  returned  pleasantly,  putting  his  feet  to 
gether  before  him  and  looking  down  at  them,  in  a 
way  he  had.  "  But  still,  I  have  a  great  interest  in 
questions  of  justice,  and  I  confess  that  I  find,  a  cer 
tain  wild  equity  in  this  principle,  which  I  see  nobody 
could  do  business  on.  It  strikes  me  as  idyllic — it's  a 
touch  of  real  poetry  in  the  rough-and-tumble  prose  of 
our  economic  life." 

He  referred  this  to  me  as  something  I  might  appre- 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  75 

ciate  in  my  quality  of  literary  man,  and  I  responded 
in  my  quality  of  practical  man,  "  There's  certainly 
more  rhyme  than  reason  in  it." 

He  turned  again  to  the  minister : 

"  I  suppose  the  ideal  of  the  Christain  state  is  the 
family  ? " 

"  I  hope  so,"  said  the  minister,  with  the  gratitude 
that  I  have  seen  people  of  his  cloth  show  when  men  of 
the  world  conceded  premises  which  the  world  usually 
contests ;  it  has  seemed  to  me  pathetic. 

"  And  if  that  is  the  case,  why  the  logic  of  the  pos 
tulate  is  that  the  prosperity  of  the  weakest  is  the 
sacred  charge  and  highest  happiness  of  all  the 
stronger.  But  the  law  has  not  recognized  any  such 
principle,  in  economics  at  least,  and  if  the  labor  unions 
are  based  upon  it  they  are  outlaw,  so  far  as  any  hope 
of  enforcing  it  is  concerned  ;  and  it  is  bad  for  men  to 
feel  themselves  outlaw.  How  is  it,"  the  lawyer  contin 
ued,  turning  to  the  Altrurian, 4t  in  your  country?  We 
can  see  no  issue  here,  if  the  first  principle  of  organ 
ized  labor  antagonizes  the  first  principle  of  business." 

"But  I  don't  understand  precisely  yet  what  the 
first  principle  of  business  is,"  returned  my  guest. 

"  Ah,  that  raises  another  interesting  question,"  said 


76  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

the  lawyer.  "  Of  course  every  business  man  solves 
the  problem  practically  according  to  his  temperament 
and  education,  and  I  suppose  that  on  first  thoughts 
every  business  man  would  answer  you  accordingly. 
But  perhaps  the  personal  equation  is  something  you 
wish  to  eliminate  from  the  definition." 

"  Yes,  of  course." 

"  Still,  I  would  rather  not  venture  upon  it  first," 
said  the  lawyer.  "  Professor,  what  should  you  say 
was  the  first  principle  of  business?" 

"  Buying  in  the  cheapest  market  and  selling  in  the 
dearest,"  the  professor  promptly  answered. 

"  We  will  pass  the  parson  and  the  doctor  and  the 
novelist  as  witnesses  of  no  value.  They  can't  possibly 
have  any  cognizance  of  the  first  principle  of  business  ; 
their  affair  is  to  look  after  the  souls  and  bodies  and 
fancies  of  other  people.  But  what  should  you  say  it 
was  ? "  he  asked  the  banker. 

"  I  should  say  it  was  an  enlightened  conception  of 
one's  own  interests." 

"  And  you  ?  " 

The  manufacturer  had  no  hesitation  in  answering  : 
"  The  good  of  Number  One  first,  last,  and  all  the  time. 
There  may  be  a  difference  of  opinion  about  the  best 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  77 

way  to  get  at  it ;  the  long  way  may  be  the  better,  or 
the  short  way ;  the  direct  way  or  the  oblique  way,  or 
the  purely  selfish  way,  or  the  partly  selfish  way ;  but 
if  you  ever  lose  sight  of  that  end  you  might  as  well 
shut  up  shop.  That  seems  to  be  the  first  law  of 
nature,  as  well  as  the  first  law  of  business." 

"  Ah,  we  mustn't  go  to  nature  for  our  morality," 
the  minister  protested. 

"  We  were  not  talking  of  morality,"  said  the  man 
ufacturer,  "  we  were  talking  of  business." 

This  brought  the  laugh  on  the  minister,  but  the 
lawyer  cut  it  short:  "Well,  then,  I  don't  really  see 
why  the  trades-unions  are  not  as  business-like  as  the 
syndicates  in  their  dealings  with  all  those  outside  of 
themselves.  Within  themselves  they  practice  an 
altruism  of  the  highest  order,  but  it  is  a  tribal  altru 
ism  ;  it  is  like  that  which  prompts  a  Sioux  to  share 
his  last  mouthful  with  a  starving  Sioux,  and  to  take 
the  scalp  of  a  starving  Apaehe.  How  is  it  with  your 
trades-unions  in  Altruria  ? "  he  asked  my  friend. 

"  We  have  no  trades-unions  in  Altruria,"  he  began. 

"  Happy  Altruria  !  "  cried  the  professor. 

"  WTe  had  them  formerly,"  the  Altrurian  went  on, 
"  as  you  have  them  now.  They  claimed,  as  I  suppose 


78  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

yours  do,  that  they  were  forced  into  existence  by  the 
necessities  of  the  case ;  that  without  union  the  work- 
ingman  was  unable  to  meet  the  capitalist  on  anything 
like  equal  terms,  or  to  withstand  his  encroachments 
and  oppressions.  But  to  maintain  themselves  they 
had  to  extinguish  industrial  liberty  among  the  work- 
ingmen  themselves,  and  they  had  to  practice  great 
cruelties  against  those  who  refused  to  join  them  or 
who  rebelled  against  them." 

"  They  simply  destroy  them  here,"  said  the  pro 
fessor. 

"  Well,"  said  the  lawyer,  from  his  judicial  mind, 
"  the  great  syndicates  have  no  scruples  in  destroying 
a  capitalist  who  won't  come  into  them,  or  who  tries 
to  go  out.  They  don't  club  him  or  stone  him,  but 
they  undersell  him  and  freeze  him  out ;  they  don't 
break  his  head,  but  they  bankrupt  him  The  princi 
ple  is  the  same." 

"  Don't  interrupt  Mr.  Homos,"  the  banker  en 
treated.  "  I  am  very  curious  to  know  just  how  they 
got  rid  of  labor  unions  in  Altruria." 

"  We  had  syndicates,  too,  and  finally  we  had  the 
reductio  ad  absurdum — we  had  a  federation  of  labor 
unions  and  a  federation  of  syndicates,  that  dividdd 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  79 

the  nation  into  two  camps.  The  situation  was  not 
only  impossible,  but  it  was  insupportably  ridiculous." 

I  ventured  to  say,  "  It  hasn't  become  quite  so  much 
of  a  joke  with  us  yet." 

"  Isn't  it  in  a  fair  way  to  become  so  ? "  asked  the 
doctor  ;  and  he  turned  to  the  lawyer  :  "  What  should 
you  say  was  the  logic  of  events  among  us  for  the  last 
ten  or  twenty  years  ?  " 

"  There's  nothing  so  capricious  as  the  logic  of 
events.  It's  like  a  woman's  reasoning — you  can't 
tell  what  it's  aimed  at,  or  where  it's  going  to  fetch 
up ;  all  that  you  can  do  is  to  keep  out  of  the  way  if 
possible.  We  may  come  to  some  such  condition  of 
things  as  they  have  in  Altruria,  where  the  faith  of 
the  whole  nation  is  pledged  to  secure  every  citizen  in 
the  pursuit  of  happiness ;  or  we  may  revert  to  some 
former  condition,  and  the  master  may  again  own  the 
man  ;  or  we  may  hitch  and  joggle  along  indefinitely, 
as  we  are  doing  now." 

"But  come,  now,"  said  the  banker,  while  he  laid  a 
caressing  touch  on  the  Altrurian's  shoulder,  "  you 
don't  mean  to  say  honestly  that  everybody  works 
with  his  hands  in  Altruria  ? " 

"  Yes,  certainly.     We  are  mindful,  as  a  whole  peo- 
6 


80  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

pie,  of  the  divine  law,  ( In  the  sweat  of  thy  brow  shalt 
thou  eat  bread.'  " 

"  But  the  capitalists  ?  I'm  anxious  about  Number 
One,  you  see." 

"  We  have  none." 

"  I  forgot,  of  course.  But  the  lawyers,  the  doctors, 
the  parsons,  the  novelists?" 

"They  all  do  their  share  of  hand  work." 

The  lawyer  said :  "  That  seems  to  dispose  of  the 
question  of  the  workingman  in  society.  But  how 
about  your  minds  ?  When  do  you  cultivate  your 
minds?  When  do  the  ladies  of  Altruria  cultivate 
their  minds,  if  they  have  to  do  their  own  work,  as  I 
suppose  they  do?  Or  is  it  only  the  men  who  work,  if 
they  happen  to  be  the  husbands  and  fathers  of  the 
upper  classes? " 

The  Altrurian  seemed  to  be  sensible  of  the  kindly 
skepticism  which  persisted  in  our  reception  of  his 
statements,  after  all  we  had  read  of  Altruria.  He 
smiled  indulgently,  and  said  :  "i  You  mustn't  imagine 
that  work  in  Altruria  is  the  same  as  it  is  here.  As 
we  all  work,  the  amount  that  each  one  need  do  is  very 
little,  a  few  hours  each  day  at  the  most,  so  that  every 
man  and  woman  has  abundant  leisure  and  perfect 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  81 

spirits  for  the  higher  pleasures  which  the  education 
of  their  whole  youth  has  fitted  them  to  enjoy.  If  you 
can  understand  a  state  of  things  where  the  sciences 
and  arts  .and  letters  are  cultivated  for  their  own  sake, 
and  not  as  a  means  of  livelihood  " — 

"  No,"  said  the  lawyer,  smiling,  "  I'm  afraid  we 
can't  conceive  of  that.  AYo  consider  the  pinch  of 
poverty  the  highest  incentive  that  a  man  can  have. 
If  our  gifted  friend  here,"  he  said,  indicating  me, 
"  were  not  kept  like  a  toad  under  the  harrow,  with 
his  nose  on  the  grindstone,  and  the  poorhouse  staring 
him  in  the  face  " — 

"  For  heaven's  sake,"  I  cried  out,  "don't  mix  your 
metaphors  so,  anyway  !  " 

"If  it  were  not  for  that  and  all  the  other  hardships 
that  literary  men  undergo — 

*  Toil,  envy,  want,  the  patron  and  the  jail ' — 

his  novels  probably  wouldn't  be  worth  reading." 

"  All ! "  said  the  Altrurian,  as  if  he  did  not  quite 
follow  this  joking ;  and  to  tell  the  truth,  I  never  find 
the  personal  thing  in  very  good  taste.  "  You  will 
understand,  then,  how  extremely  difficult  it  is  for  me 
to  imagine  a  condition  of  things  like  yours — although 


82  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

I  have  it  under  my  very  eyes^where  the  money  con 
sideration  is  the  first  consideration." 

"  Oh,  excuse  me  ! "  urged  the  minister,  "  I  don't 
think  that's  quite  the  case." 

"  I  beg  your  pardon,"  said  the  Altrurian,  sweetly  ; 
"  you  can  see  how  easily  I  go  astray." 

"  Why,  I  don't  know,"  the  banker  interposed, 
u  that  you  are  so  far  out  in  what  you  say.  If  you  had 
said  that  money  was  always  the  first  motive,  I  should 
have  been  inclined  to  dispute  you,  too ;  but  when  you 
say  that  money  is  the  first  consideration,  I  think  you 
are  quite  right.  Unless  a  man  secures  his  financial 
basis  for  his  work,  he  can't  do  his  work.  It's  non 
sense  to  pretend  otherwise.  So  the  money  consider 
ation  is  the  first  consideration.  People  here  have  to 
live  by  their  work,  and  to  live  they  must  have  money. 
Of  course,  we  all  recognize  a  difference  in  the  quali 
ties,  as  well  as  in  the  kinds,  of  work.  The  work  of 
the  laborer  may  be  roughly  defined  as  the  necessity 
of  his  life ;  the  work  of  the  business  man  as  the 
means,  and  the  work  of  the  artist  and  scientist  as  the 
end.  We  might  refine  upon  these  definitions  and 
make  them  closer,  but  they  will  serve  for  illustration 
as  they  are.  I  don't  think  there  can  be  any  question 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  83 

as  to  which  is  the  highest  kind  of  work ;  some  truths 
are  self-evident.  He  is  a  fortunate  man  whose  work 
is  an  end,  and  every  business  man  sees  this,  and 
owns  it  to  himself,' at  least  when  he  meets  some  man 
of  an  aesthetic  or  scientific  occupation.  He  knows 
that  this  luckier  fellow  has  a  joy  in  his  work,  which  he 
can  never  feel  in  business ;  that  his  success  in  it  can 
never  be  embittered  by  the  thought  that  it  is  the 
failure  of  another ;  that  if  he  does  it  well,  it  is  pure 
good ;  that  there  cannot  be  any  competition  in  it — 
there  can  be  only  a  noble  emulation,  as  far  as  the  work 
itself  is  concerned.  He  can  always  look  up  to  his 
work,  for  it  is  something  above  him ;  and  a  business 
man  often  has  to  look  down  upon  his  business,  for  it  is 
often  beneath  him,  unless  he  is  a  pretty  low  fellow." 
I  listened  to  all  this  in  surprise ;  I  knew  that  the 
banker  was  a  cultivated  man,  a  man  of  university 
training,  and  that  he  was  a  reader  and  a  thinker ;  but 
he  had  always  kept  a  certain  reserve  in  his  talk, 
which  he  now  seemed  to  have  thrown  aside  for  the 
sake  of  the  Altrurian,  or  because  the  subject  had  a 
charm  that  lured  him  out  of  himself.  "  Well,  now," 
he  continued,  "  the  question  is  of  the  money  consid 
eration,  which  is  the  first  consideration  with  us  all : 


84  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

does  it,  or  doesn't  it  degrade  the  work,  which  is  the 
life,  of  those  among  us  whose  work  is  the  highest  ?  I 
understand  that  this  is  the  misgiving  which  troubles 
you  in  view  of  our  conditions  ? " 

The  Altrurian  assented,  and  I  thought  it  a  proof  of 
the  banker's  innate  delicacy  that  he  did  not  refer  the 
matter,  so  far  as  it  concerned  the  aesthetic  life  and 
work,  to  me  ;  I  was  afraid  he  was  going  to  do  so.  But 
he  courteously  proposed  to  keep  the  question  imper 
sonal,  and  he  went  on  to  consider  it  himself.  "  Well, 
I  don't  suppose  any  one  can  satisfy  you  fully.  But  I 
should  say  that  it  put  such  men  under  a  double  strain, 
and  perhaps  that  is  the  reason  why  so  many  of  them 
break  down  in  a  calling  that  is  certainly  far  less  ex 
hausting  than  business.  On  one  side,  the  artist  is 
kept  to  the  level  of  the  workingman,  of  the  animal, 
of  the  creature  whose  sole  affair  is  to  get  something 
to  eat  and  somewhere  to  sleep.  This  is  through  his 
necessity.  On  the  other  side,  he  is  exalted  to  the 
height  of  beings  who  have  no  concern  but  with  the 
excellence  of  their  work,  which  they  were  born  and 
divinely  authorized  to  do.  This  is  through  his  pur 
pose.  Between  the  two,  I  should  say  that  he  got 
mixed,  and  that  his  work  shows  it." 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  85 

None  of  the  others  said  anything,  and  since  I  had 
not  been  personally  appealed  to,  I  felt  the  freer  to 
speak.  "  If  you  will  suppose  me  to  be  speaking  from 
observation  rather  than  experience,  '  I  began. 

"By  all  means,"  said  the  banker,  "  go  on,"  and  the 
rest  made  haste  in  various  forms  to  yield  me  the  word. 

"  I  should  say  that  such  a  man  certainly  got  mixed, 
but  that  his  work  kept  itself  pure  from  the  money 
consideration,  as  it  were,  in  spite  of  him.  A  painter, 
or  actor,  or  even  a  novelist,  is  glad  to  get  all  he  can 
for  his  work,  and,  such  is  our  fallen  nature,  he  does 
.get  all  he  knows 'how  to  get;  but  when  he  has  once 
fairly  passed  into  his  work,  he  loses  himself  in  it.  He 
docs  not  think  whether  it  will  pay  or  not,  whether  it 
\till  be  popular  or  not,  but  whether  he  can  make  it 
good  or  not." 

"Well,  that  is  conceivable,"  said  the  banker. 
"  But  wouldn't  lie  rather  do  something  he  would  get 
Icsslfor,  if  he  could  afford  it,  than  the  thing  he  knows 
He  will  get  more  for?  Doesn't  the  money  considera 
tion  influence  his  choice  of  subject?" 

"  Uddly  enough,  I  don't  believe  it  docs,"  I  ans- 
wtrcd,  after  a  moment's  reflection.  u  A  man  makes 
1/is  choice  once  for  all  when  he  embraces  the  aesthetic 


86  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

life,  or  rather  it  is  made  for  him ;  no  other  life  seems 
possible.  I  know  there  is  a  general  belief  that  an  ar 
tist  does  the  kind  of  thing  he  has  made  go  because  it 
pays  ;  but  this  only  shows  the  prevalence  of  business 
ideals.  If  he  did  not  love  to  do  the  thing  he  does  he 
could  not  do  it  well,  no  matter  how  richly  it  paid." 

"  I  am  glad  to  hear  it,"  said  the  banker,  and  he 
added  to  the  Altrurian :  "  So  you  see  we  are  not  so 
bad  as  one  would  think.  We  are  illogically  better, 
in  fact." 

"  Yes,"  the  other  assented.  "  I  knew  something 
of  your  literature  as  well  as  your  conditions  before  I 
left  home,  and  I  perceived  that  by  some  anomaly,  the 
one  was  not  tainted  by  the  other.  It  is  a  miraculous 
proof  of  the  divine  mission  of  the  poet." 
-  "  And  the  popular  novelist,"  the  lawyer  whispered 
in  my  ear,  but  loud  enough  for  the  rest  to  hear,  and 
they  all  testified  their  amusement  at  my  cost. 

The  Altrurian,  with  his  weak  sense  of  humor, 
passed  the  joke.  "  It  shows  no  signs  of  corruption 
from  greed,  but  I  can't  help  thinking  that  fine  as  it 
is,  it  might  have  been  much  finer  if  the  authors  who 
produced  it  had  been  absolutely  freed  to  their  work, 
and  had  never  felt  the  spur  of  need." 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  87 

"Arc  they  absolutely  freed  to  it  in  Altruria?" 
asked  the  professor.  "  I  understood  you  that  every 
body  had  to  work  for  his  living  in  Altruria." 

"That  is  a  mistake.  Nobody  works  for  his  living 
in  Altruria  ;  he  works  for  others'  living." 

"  Ah,  that  is  precisely  what  our  workingmen  object 
to  doing  here  !  "  said  the  manufacturer.  "  In  that 
last  interview  of  mine  with  the  walking-delegate  he 
had  the  impudence  to  ask  me  why  my  men  should 
work  for  my  living  as  well  as  their  own." 

"  He  couldn't  imagine  that  you  were  giving  them 
the  work  to  do — the  very  means  of  life,"  said  the 
professor. 

"  Oh,  no,  that's  the  last  thing  those  fellows  want 
to  think  of." 

"  Perhaps,"  the  Altrurian  suggested,  "  they  might 
not  have  have  found  it  such  a  hardship  to  work  for 
your  living  if  their  own  had  been  assured,  as  it  is 
with  us.  If  you  will  excuse  my  saying  it,  we  should 
think  it  monstrous  in  Altruria  for  any  man  to  have 
another's  means  of  life  in  his  power  ;  and  in  our  con 
dition  it  is  hardly  imaginable.  Do  you  really  have  it 
in  your  power  to  take  away  a  man's  opportunity  to 
earn  a  living? " 


88  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

The  manufacturer  laughed  uneasily.  "  It  is  in  my 
power  to  take  away  his  life  ;  but  I  don't  habitually 
shoot  my  fellow  men,  and  I  never  dismissed  a  man 
yet  without. good  reason." 

"  Oh,  I  beg  your  pardon,"  said  the  Altrurian.  "  I 
didn't  dream  of  accusing  you  of  such  inhumanity. 
But  you  see  our  whole  system  is  so  very  different 
that,  as  I  said,  it  is  hard  for  me  to  conceive  of  yours, 
and  I  am  very  curious  to  understand  its  workings. 
If  you  shot  your  fellowman,  as  you  say,  the  law  would 
punish  you  ;  but  if  for  some  reason  that  you  decided 
to  be  good  you  took  away  his  means  of  living,  and  he 
actually  starved  to  death" — 

"  Then  the  law  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  it," 
the  professor  replied  for  the  manufacturer,  who  did 
not  seem  ready  to  answer.  "  But  that  is  not  the  way 
things  fall  out.  The  man  would  be  supported  in  idle 
ness,  probably,  till  he  got  another  job,  by  his  union, 
which  would  take  the  matter  up." 

"  But  I  thought  that  our  friend  did  not  employ 
union  labor,"  returned  the  Altrurian. 

I  found  all  this  very  uncomfortable,  and  tried  to 
turn  the  talk  back  to  a  point  that  I  felt  curious  about. 
"  But  iu  Altruria,  if  the  literary  class  is  not  exempt 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  89 

from  the  rule  of  manual  labor  where  do  they  find  time 
and  strength  to  write  ?  " 

"  Why,  you  must  realize  that  our  manual  labor  is 
never  engrossing  or  exhausting.  It  is  no  more  than 
is  necessary  to  keep  the  body  in  health.  I  do  not  see 
how  you  remain  well  here,  you  people  of  sedentary 
occupations." 

"  Oh,  we  all  take  some  sort  of  exercise.  We  walk 
several  hours  a  day,  or  we  row,  or  we  ride  a  bicycle, 
or  a  horse,  or  we  fence." 

"  But  to  us,"  returned  the  Altrurian,  with  a  grow 
ing  frankness,  which  nothing  but  the  sweetness  of  his 
manner  would  have  excused,  "exercise  for  exercise 
would  appear  stupid.  The  barren  expenditure  of 
force  that  began  and  ended  in  itself,  and  produced 
nothing,  we  should — if  you  will  excuse  my  saying  so 
— look  upon  as  childish,  if  not  insane  or  immoral." 


V. 

AT  this  moment,  the  lady  who  had  hailed  me  so 
gaily  from  the  top  of  the  coach  while  I  stood  waiting 
for  the  Altrurian  to  help  the  porter  with  the  baggage, 
just  after  the  arrival  of  the  train,  came  up  with  her 
husband  to  our  little  group  and  said  to  me  :  "  I  want 
to  introduce  my  husband  to  you.  He  adores  your 
books."  She  went  on  much  longer  to  this  effect, 
while  the  other  men  grinned  round  and  her  husband 
tried  to  look  as  if  it  were  all  true,  and  her  eyes  wan 
dered  to  the  Altrurian,  who  listened  gravely.  I  knew 
perfectly  well  that  she  was  using  her  husband's  zeal 
for  my  fiction  to  make  me  present  my  friend ;  but  I 
dill  not  mind  that,  and  I  introduced  him  to  both  of 
them.  She  took  possession  of  him  at  once  and  began 
walking  him  off  down  the  piazza,  while  her  husband 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  91 

remained  with  me,  and  the  members  of  our  late  con 
ference  drifted  apart.  I  was  not  sorry  to  have  it 
broken  up  for  the  present;  it  seemed  to  me  that  it 
had  lasted  quite  long  enough,  and  I  lighted  a  cigar 
with  the  husband,  and  we  strolled  together  in  the 
direction  his  wife  had  taken. 

He  began,  apparently  in  compliment  to  literature 
in  my  person,  "  Yes,  I  like  to  have  a  book  where  I 
can  get  at  it  when  we're  not  going  out  to  the  theatre, 
and  I  want  to  quiet  my  mind  down  after  business.  I 
don't  care  much  what  the  book  is  ;  my  wife  reads  to 
me  till  I  drop  off,  and  then  she  finishes  the  book  her 
self  and  tells  me  the  rest  of  the  story.  You  see, 
business  takes  it  out  of  you  so  !  Well,  I  let  my  wife 
do  most  of  the  reading,  anyway.  She  knows  pretty 
much  everything  that's  going  in  that  line.  We 
haven't  got  any  children,  and  it  occupies  her  mind. 
She's  up  to  all  sorts  of  things — she's  artistic,  and 
she's  musical,  and  she's  dramatic,  and  she's  literary. 
Well,  I  like  to  have  her.  Women  are  funny,  anyway." 

He  was  a  good-looking,  good-natufed,  average 
American  of  the  money-making  type  ;  I  believe  he 
was  some  sort  of  a  broker,  but  I  do  not  quite  know 
what  his  business  was.  As  we  walked  up  and  down 


92  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

the  piazza,  keeping  a  discreet  little  distance  from  the 
corner  where  his  wife  had  run  off  to  with  her  capture, 
he  said  he  wished  he  could  get  more  time  with  her  in 
the  summer — but  he  supposed  I  knew  what  business 
was.  He  was  glad  she  could  have  the  rest,  anyway  ; 
she  needed  it. 

"  By  the  way,"  he  asked,  "  who  is  this  friend  of 
yours?  The  women  are  all  crazy  about  him,  and  it's 
been  an  even  thing  between  my  wife  and  Miss 
Groundsel  which  would  fetch  him  first.  But  I'll  bet 
on  my  wife  every  time,  when  it  comes  to  a  thing  like 
that.  He's  a  good  looking  fellow — some  kind  of  for 
eigner,  I  believe ;  pretty  eccentric,  too,  I  guess. 
Where  is  Altruria,  anyway  ?  " 

I  told  him,  and  he  said  :  "  Oh,  yes.  Well,  if  we 
are  going  to  restrict  immigration,  I  suppose  we 
sha'n't  see  many  more  Altrurians,  and  we'd  better 
make  the  most  of  this  one.  Heigh  ?  " 

I  do  not  know  why  this  innocent  pleasantry  piqued 
me  to  say  :  "  If  I  understand  the  Altrurians,  my  dear 
fellow,  nothing  could  induce  them  to  emigrate  to 
America.  As  far  as  I  can  make  out,  they  would  re 
gard  it  very  mucli  as  we  should  regard  settling  among 
the  Esquimaux." 


A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA.        93 

u  Is  fhat  so  ?  "  asked  my  new  acquaintance,  with 
perfect  good  temper.  "  Why  ?  " 

"  Really,  I  can't  say,  and  I  don't  know  that  IVe 
explicit  authority  for  my  statement." 

"  They  are  worse  than  the  English  used  to  be/'  he 
went  on.  "  I  didn't  know  that  there  were  any  for 
eigners  who  looked  at  us  in  that  light  now.  I 
thought  the  War  settled  all  that." 

I  sighed.  "  There  are  a  good  many  things  that 
the  war  didn't  settle  so  definitely  as  we've  been  used 
to  thinking,  I'm  afraid.  But  for  that  matter,  I  fancy 
an  Altrurian  would  regard  the  English  as  a  little  lower 
in  the  scale  of  savagery  than  ourselves  even." 

"Is  that  so?  Well,  that's  pretty  good  on  the 
English,  anyway,"  said  my  companion,  and  he  laughed 
with  an  easy  satisfaction  that  I  envied  him. 

u  My  dear  !  "  his  wife  called  to  him  from  where 
she  was  sitting  with  the  Altrurian,  "  I  wish  you  would 
go  for  my  shawl.  I  begin  to  feel  the  air  a  little." 

"  I'll  go  if  you'll  tell  me  where,"  he  said,  and  he 
confided  to  me,  "  Never  knows  where  her  shawl  is, 
one-quarter  of  the  time." 

"  Well,  I  think  I  left  it  in  the  office  somewhere. 
You  might  ask  at  the  desk ;  or,  perhaps  it's  in  the 


94        A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA. 

rack  by  the  dining  room  door — or  maybe  up  in  our 
room." 

"  I  thought  so,"  said  her  husband,  with  another 
glance  at  me,  as  if  it  were  the  greatest  fun  in  the 
world,  and  he  started  amiably  off. 

I  went  and  took  a  chair  by  the  lady  and  the  Altru- 
rian,  and  she  began  at  once :  "  Oh,  I'm  so  glad 
you've  come  !  I  have  been  trying  to  enlighten  Mr. 
-Homos  about  some  of  the  little  social  peculiarities 
among  us,  that  he  finds  so  hard  to  understand.  He 
was  just  now,"  the  lady  continued,  "  wanting  to  know 
why  all  the  natives  out  here  were  not  invited  to  go  in 
and  join  our  young  people  in  the  dance,  and  I've  been 
trying  to  tell  him  that  we  consider  it  a  great  favor  to 
let  them  come  and  take  up  so  much  of  the  piazza  and 
look  in  at  {he  windows." 

She  gave  a  little  laugh  of  superiority,  and  twitched 
her  pretty  head  in  the  direction  of  the  young  country 
girls  and  country  fellows  who  were  thronging  the 
place  that  night  in  rather  unusual  numbers.  They 
were  well  enough  looking,  and  as  it  was  Saturday 
night  they  were  in  their  best.  I  suppose  their  dress 
could  have  been  criticised ;  the  young  fellows  were 
clothed  by  the  ready-made  clothing  store,  and  the 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  95 

young  girls  after  their  own  devices  from  the  fashion- 
papers  ;  but  their  general  effect  was  good  and 
their  behavior  was  irreproachable ;  they  were  very 
quiet — if  anything,  too  quiet.  They  took  up  a  part 
of  the  piazza  that  was  yielded  them  by  common 
usage,  and  sat  watching  the  hop  inside,  not  so  much 
enviously,  I  thought,  as  wistfully ;  and  for  the  first 
time  it  struck  me  as  odd  that  they  should  have  no 
part  in  the  gayety.  I  had  often  seen  them  there  be 
fore,  but  I  had  never  thought  it  strange  they  should 
be  shut  out.  It  had  always  seemed  quite  normal,  but 
now,  suddenly,  for  one  baleful  moment,  it  seemed 
abnormal.  I  suppose  it  was  the  talk  we  had  been 
having  about  the  workingmen  in  society  which  caused 
me  to  see  the  thing  as  the  Altrurian  must  have  seen 
it ;  but  I  was,  nevertheless,  vexed  with  him  for  having 
asked  such  a  question,  after  he  had  been  so  fully  in 
structed  upon  the  point.  It  was  malicious  of  him,  or 
it  was  stupid.  I  hardened  my  heart,  and  answered : 
"You  might  have  told  him,  for  one  thing,  that  they 
were  not  'dancing  because  they  had  not  paid  the 
piper." 

"  Then   the  money  consideration  enters  even  into 

your  social  pleasures?"  asked  the  Altrurian. 

7 


96        A  TEAVZLEB  FROM  ALTRUBIA. 

"  Very  much.     Doesn't  it  with  you  \  *' 

He  evaded  this  question,  as  he  evaded  all  straight 
forward  questions  concerning  his  country  :  "  We  have 
no  money  consideration,  you  know.  But  do  I  under 
stand  that  all  your  social  entertainments  are  paid  for 
.y-.;.-:  _-.;,-.-. 

"  Oh,  no,  not  so  bad  as  that,  quite.  There  are  a 
great  many  that  the  host  pays  for.  Even  here,  in  a 
hotel,  the  host  furnishes  the  music  and  the  room  free 
to  the  guests  of  the  house.*' 

"  And  none  are  admitted  from  the  outside  ?  *' 

"Oh,  yes,  people  are  welcome  from  all  the  other 

» 
hotels  and  boarding-houses  and  the  private  cottages. 

The  young  men  arc  especially  welcome :  there  are  not 
enough  young  men  in  the  hotel  to  go  round,  you  see/' 
In  fact,  we  could  see  that  some  of  the  pretty  girls 
within  were  dancing  with  other  girls  ;  half -grown  boys 
were  dangling  from  the  waists  of  tall  young  ladies 
and  waltzing  on  tiptoe. 

**  Isn't  that  rather  droll  ? "  asked  the  Altrurian. 

*•  It's  grotesque  ! ''  I  said,  and  I  felt  ashamed  of  it. 
u  But  what  are  you  to  do  ?  The  young  men  are  hard 
at  work  in  the  cities,  as  many  as  can  get  work  there, 
and  the  rest  are  out  West,  growing  up  with  the  coun- 


A    TRAVELER     FROM    ALTRURIA.  97 

try.  There  are  twenty  young  girls  for  every  young 
man  at  all  the  summer-resorts  in  the  East." 

"  But  what  would  happen  if  these  young  farmers — 
I  suppose  they  are  farmers — were  invited  in  to  take- 
part  in  the  dance  ?  "  asked  my  friend. 

"  But  that  is  impossible." 

"  Why  ? " 

"  Really,  Mrs.  Makely,  I  think  I  shall  have  to  give 
him  back  to  you  ! "  I  said. 

The  lady  laughed.  "  I  am  not  sure  that  I  want 
him  back." 

"  Oh,  yes,"  the  Altrurian  entreated,  with  unwonted 
perception  of  the  humor.  "  I  know  that  I  must  be 
very  trying  with  my  questions ;  but  do  not  abandon 
me  to  the  solitude  of  my  own  conjectures.  They  arc 
dreadful !  " 

"  Well,  I  won't,"  said  the  lady,  with  another  laugh. 
"  And  I  will  try  to  tell  you  what  would  happen  if 
those  farmers  or  farm  hands,  or  whatever  they  are, 
were  asked  in.  The  mammas  would  be  very  indig 
nant,  and  the  young  ladies  would  be  scared,  and 
nobody  would  know  what  to  do,  and  the  dance  would 
stop." 


98        A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA. 

"  Then  the  young  ladies  prefer  to  dance  with  one 
another  and  with  little  boys" — 

"  No,  they  prefer  to  dance  with  young  men  of  their 
own  station ;  they  would  rather  not  dance  at  all  than 
dance  with  people  beneath  them.  I  don't  say  any 
thing  against  these  natives  here ;  they  are  very  civil 
and  decent.  But  they  have  not  the  same  social 
traditions  as  the  young  ladies ;  they  would  be  out  of 
place  with  them,  and  they  would  feel  it." 

"  Yes,  I  can  see  that  they  are  not  fit  to  associate 
with  them,"  said  the  Altrurian,  with  a  gleam  of  com 
mon  sense  that  surprised  me,  "  and  that  as  long  as 
your  present  conditions  endure,  they  never  can  be. 
You  must  excuse  the  confusion  which  the  difference 
between  your  political  ideals  and  your  economic  ideals 
constantly  creates  in  me.  1  always  think  of  you 
politically  first,  and  realize  you  as  a  perfect  democracy; 
then  come  these  other  facts,  in  which  I  cannot  per 
ceive  that  you  differ  from  the  aristocratic  countries  of 
Europe  in  theory  or  practice.  It  is  very  puzzling. 
Am  I  right  in  supposing  that  the  effect  of  your 
economy  is  to  establish  insuperable  inequalities  among 
you,  and  to  forbid  the  hope  of  the  brotherhood  which 
your  polity  proclaims  ?  " 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  99 

Mrs.  Makcly  looked  at  me,  as  if  she  were  helpless 
to  grapple  with  his  meaning,  and  for  fear  of  worse,  I 
thought  best  to  evade  it.  I  said,  "  I  don't  believe 
that  anybody  is  troubled  by  those  distinctions.  We 
are  used  to  them,  and  everybody  acquiesces  in  them, 
which  is  a  proof  that  they  are  a  very  good  thing." 

Mrs.  Makely  now  came  to  my  support.  "  The 
Americans  are  very  high-spirited,  in  every  class,  and 
I  don't  believe  one  of  those  nice  farm  boys  would  like 
being  asked  in  any  better  than  the  young  ladies.  You 
can't  imagine  how  proud  some  of  them  are." 

"  So  that  they  suffer  from  being  excluded  as  in 
feriors  ? " 

"  Oh,  I  assure  you  they  don't  _feel  themselves 
inferior !  They  consider  themselves  as  good  as  any 
body.  There  are  some  very  interesting  characters 
among  them.  Now,  there  is  a  young  girl  sitting  at 
the  first  window,  with  her  profile  outlined  by  the 
light,  whom  I  feel  it  an  honor  to  speak  to.  That's 
her  brother,  standing  there  with  her — that  tall,  gaunt 
young  man  with  a  Roman  face ;  it's  such  a  common 
type  here "  in  the  mountains.  Their  father  was  a  sol 
dier,  and  he  distinguished  himself  so  in  one  of  the 
last  battles  that  he  was  promoted;  He  was  badly 


100  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

wounded,  but  lie  never  took  a  pension  ;  he  just  came 
back  to  his  farm  and  worked  on  till  he  died.  Now 
the  son  has  the  farm,  and  he  and  his  sister  live  there 
with  their  mother.  The  daughter  takes  in  sewing, 
and  in  that  way  they  manage  to  make  both  ends 
meet.  The  girl  is  really  a  first-rate  semptress,  and  so 
cheap !  I  give  her  a  good  deal  of  my  work  in  the 
summer,  and  we  arc  quite  friends.  She's  very  fond  of 
reading ;  the  mother  is  an  invalid,  but  she  reads  aloud 
while  the  daughter  sews,  and  you've  no  idea  how 
many  books  they  get  through.  When  she  comes  for 
sewing,  I  like  to  talk  with  her  about  them  ;  I  always 
have  her  sit  down ;  it's  hard  to  realize  that  she  isn't  a~ 
lady.  I'm  a  good  deal  criticised,  I  know,  and  I  sup 
pose  I  do  spoil  her  a  little ;  it  puts  notions  into  such 
people's  heads,  if  you  meet  them  in  that  way ;  they're 
pretty  free  and  independent  as  it  is.  But  when  I'm 
with  Lizzie  I  forget  that  there  is  any  difference  be 
tween  us ;  I  can't  help  loving  the  child.  You  must 
take  Mr.  Homos  to  see  them,  Mr.  Twelvemough. 
They've  got  the  father's  sword  hung  up  over  the  head 
of  the  mother's  bed ;  it's  very  touching.  But  the 
poor  little  place  is  so  bare ! " 

Mrs.  Makely  sighed,  and  there  fell  a  little  pause, 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRU3IA.  101 

which  she  broke  with  a  question  she  had  the  effect  of 
having  kept  back. 

"  There  is  one  thing  I  should  like  to  ask  you,  too, 
Mr.  Homos.  Is  it  true  that  everybody  in  Altruria 
does  some  kind  of  manual  labor  ?  " 

"  Why,  certainly,"  he  answered,  quite  as  if  he  had 
been  an  American. 

"  Ladies,  too  ?     Or  perhaps  you  have  none !  " 

I  thought  this  rather  offensive,  but  I  could  not  sec 
that  the  Altrurian  had  taken  it  ill.  "  Perhaps  we  had 
better  try  to  understand  each  other  clearly  before  I 
answer  that  question.  You  have  no  titles  of  nobility 
as  they  have  in  England" — 

"  No,  indeed  !  I  hope  we  have  outgrown  those 
superstitions,"  said  Mrs.  Makely,  with  a  republican 
fervor  that  did  iny  heart  good.  "It  is  a  word  that 
we  apply  first  of  all  to  the  moral  qualities  of  a 
person." 

"  But  you  said  just  now  that  you  sometimes  forgot 
that  your  semptress  was  not  a  lady.  Just  what  did 
you  mean  by  that  ?  " 

Mrs.  Makely  hesitated.  "  I  meant — I  suppose  I 
meant — that  she  had  not  the  surroundings  of  a  lady  ; 
the  social  traditions." 


1C2  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

"  Then  it  has  something  to  do  with  social  as  well 
as  moral  qualities — with  ranks  and  classes  ?  " 

"  Classes,  yes  ;  but  as  you  know,  we  have  no  ranks 
in  America."  The  Altrurian  took  oif  his  hat  and 
rubbed  an  imaginable  perspiration  from  his  forehead. 
He  sighed  deeply.  "  It  is  all  very  difficult." 

"Yes,"  Mrs.  Makely  assented,  "I  suppose  it  is. 
All  foreigners  find  it  so.  In  fact  it  is  something  that 
you  have  to  live  into  the  notion  of ;  it  can't  be  ex 
plained." 

"•Well,  then,  my  dear  madam,  will  you  tell  me 
without  further  question,  what  you  understand  by  a 
lady,  and  let  me  live  into  the  notion  of  it  at  my 
leisure?" 

"  I  will  do  my  best,"  said  Mrs.  Makely.  "  But  it 
would  be  so  much  easier  to  tell  you  who  was  or  who 
was  not  a  lady !  However,  your  acquaintance  is  so 
limited  yet,  that  I  must  try  to  do  something  in  the 
abstract  and  impersonal  for  you.  In  the  first  place, 
a  lady  must  be  above  the  sordid  anxieties  in  every 
way.  She  need  not  be  very  rich,  but  she  must  have 
enough,  so  that  she  need  not  be  harrassed  about 
making  both  ends  meet,  when  she  ought  to  be  devot 
ing  herself  to  her  social  duties.  The  time  is  passed 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  103 

with  us  when  a  lady  could  look  after  the  dinner,  and 
perhaps  cook  part  of  it  herself,  and  then  rush  in  to 
receive  her  guests,  and  do  the  amenities.  She  must 
have  a  certain  kind  of  house,  so  that  her  entourage 
won't  seem  cramped  and  mean,  and  she  must  have 
nice  frocks,  of  course,  and  plenty  of  them.  She 
needn't  be  of  the  smart  set ;  that  isn't  at  all  necessary; 
but  she  can't  afford  to  be  out  of  the  fashion.  Of 
course  she  must  have  a  certain  training.  She  must 
have  cultivated  tastes ;  she  must  know  about  art,  and 
literature,  and  music,  and  all  those  kind  of  things, 
and  though  it  isn't  necessary  to  go  in  for  anything  in 
particular,  it  won't  hurt  her  to  have  a  fad  or  two. 
The  nicest  kind  of  fad  is  charity ;  and  people  go  in 
for  that  a  great  deal.  I  think  sometimes  they  use  it 
to  work  up  with,  and  there  arc  some  who  use  religion 
in  the  same  way  ;  I  think  it's  horrid  ;  but  it's  perfectly 
safe  ;  you  can't  accuse  them  of  doing  it.  I'm  happy  to 
say,  though,  that  mere  church  association  doesn't  count 
socially  so  much  as  it  used  to.  Charity  is  a  great 
deal  more  insidious.  But  you  see  how  hard  it  is  to 
define  a  lady.  So  much  has  to  be  left  to  the  nerves, 
in  all  these  things !  And  then  it's  changing  all  the 
time ;  Europe's  coming  in,  and  the  old  American 


104  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

ideals  are  passing  away.  Things  that  people  did  ten 
years  ago  would  be  impossible  now,  or  at  least  ridic 
ulous.  You  wouldn't  be  considered  vulgar,  quite, 
but  you  would  certainly  be  considered  a  back  number, 
and  that's  almost  as  bad.  Really,"  said  Mrs.  Makely, 
"  I  don't  believe  I  can  tell  you  what  a  lady  is." 

We  all  laughed  together  at  her  frank  confession. 
The  Altrurian  asked,  "  But  do  I  understand  that  one 
of  her  conditions  is  that  she  shall  have  nothing  what 
ever  to  do  ? " 

"  Nothing  to  do  !  "  cried  Mrs.  Makely.  "  A  lady  is 
busy  from  morning  till  night!  She  always  goes  to 
bed  perfectly  worn  out." 

"  But  with  what  ?  "  asked  the  Altrurian. 

"  With  making  herself  agreeable  and  her  house 
attractive,  with  going  to  lunches,  and  teas,  and  din 
ners,  and  concerts,  and  theatres,  and  art  exhibitions, 
and  charity  meetings,  and  receptions,  and  with 
writing  a  thousand  and  one  notes  about  them,  and 
accepting  and  declining,  and  giving  lunches  and 
dinners,  and  making  calls  and  receiving  them,  and  I 
don't  know  what  all.  It's  the  most  hideous  slavery  !" 
Her  voice  rose  into  something  like  a  shriek ;  one 
could  see  that  her  nerves  were  going  at  the  mere 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTUUUIA.  105 

thought  of  it  all.  u  You  don't  have  a  moment  to 
yourself ;  your  life  isn't  your  own  !  " 

"  But  the  lady  isn't  allowed  to  do  any  useful  kind 
of  work?" 

•'  Work  f  Don't  you  call  all  that  work,  and  useful? 
I'm  sure  I  envy  the  cook  in  my  kitchen  at  times  ;  I 
envy  the  woman  that  scrubs  my  floors.  Stop  !  Don't 
ask  why  I  don't  go  into  my  kitchen,  or  get  down  on 
my  knees  with  the  mop !  It  isn't  possible !  You 
simply  can't !  Perhaps  you  could  if  you  were  very 
grand  dame,  but  if  you're  anywhere  near  the  line  of 
necessity,  or  ever  have  been,  you  can't.  Besides,  if 
we  did  do  our  own  household  work,  as  I  understand 
your  Altrurian  ladies  do,  what  would  become  of  the 
the  servant  class  ?  We  should  be  taking  away  their 
living,  and  that  would  be  wicked." 

"  It  would  certainly  be  wrong  to  take  away  the 
living  of  a  fellow-creature,"  the  Altrurian  gravely 
admitted,  "  and  I  see  the  obstacle  in  your  way." 

"  It's  a  mountain,"  said  the  lady,  with  exhaustion 
in  her  voice,  but  a  returning  amiability  ;  his  forbear 
ance  must  have  placated  her. 

"  May  I  ask  what  the  use  of  your  society  life  is  ? " 
he  ventured,  after  a  moment. 


106  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

"  Use  ?     Why  should  it  have  any  ?     It  kills  time." 

"  Then  you  are  shut  up  to  a  hideous  slavery  with 
out  use,  except  to  kill  time,  and  you  cannot  escape 
from  it  without  taking  away  the  living  of  those 
dependant  on  you  ? " 

"Yes,"  I  put  in,  "and  that  is  a  difficulty  that 
meets  us  at  every  turn.  It  is  something  that  Matthew 
Arnold  urged  with  great  effect  in  his  paper  on  that 
crank  of  a  Tolstoy.  He  asked  what  would  become 
of  the  people  who  need  the  work,  if  we  served  and 
waited  on  ourselves,  as  Tolstoy  preached.  The  ques 
tion  is  unanswerable." 

"  That  is  true ;  in  your  conditions,  it  is  unanswer 
able,"  said  the  Altrurian. 

"I  think,"  said  Mrs.  Makcly,  "that  under  the 
circumstances  we  do  pretty  well." 

"  Oh,  I  don't  presume  to  censure  you.  And  if  you 
believe  that  your  conditions  arc  the  best"- 

"Wc  believe  them  the  best  in  the  best  of  all 
possible  worlds,"  I  said  devoutly  ;  and  it  struck  me 
that  if  ever  we  came  to  have  a  national  church,  some 
such  affirmation  as  that  concerning  our  economical 
conditions  ought  to  be  in  the  confession  of  faith. 

The  AJtrurian's  mind  had  not  followed  mine  so  far. 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  107 

"  And  your  young  girls  ? "  lie  asked  of  Mrs.  Makcly, 
"  how  is  their  time  occupied  ?  " 

"You  mean  after  they  come  out  in  society?  " 

"  I  suppose  so." 

She  seemed  to  reflect.  "  I  don't  know  that  it  is 
very  differently  occupied.  Of  course,  they  have  their 
own  amusements  ;  they  have  their  dances,  and  little 
clubs,  and  their  sewing  societies.  I  suppose  that  even 
an  Altrurian  would  applaud  their  sewing  for  the 
poor  ?  "  Mrs.  Makcly  asked  rather  satirically. 

"Yes,"  he  answered;  and  then  he  asked,  "Isn't  it 
taking  work  away  from  some  needy  sempstress, 
though  ?  But  I  suppose  you  excuse  it  to  the  thought 
lessness  of  youth." 

Mrs.  Makcly  did  not  say,  and  he  went  on  :  "  What 
I  find  it  so  hard  to  understand  is  how  you  ladies  can 
endure  a  life  of  mere  nervous  exertion,  such  as  you 
have  been  describing  to  me.  I  don't  see  how  you 
keep  well." 

"  We  don't  keep  well,"  said  Mrs.  Makely,  with  the 
greatest  amusement.  "  I  don't  suppose  that  when  you 
get  above  the  working  classes,  till  you  reach  the  very 
rich,  you  would  find  a  perfectly  well  woman  .n 
America." 


108  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

"Isn't  that  rather  extreme?"  I  ventured  to  ask. 

"  No,"  said  Mrs.  Makely,  "  it's  shamefully  moder 
ate,"  and  she  seemed  to  delight  in  having  made  out 
such  a  bad  case  for  her  sex.  You  can't  stop  a  woman 
of  that  kind  when  she  gets  started  ;  I  had  better  left 
it  alone. 

"  But,"  said  the  Altrurian,  "  if  you  are  forbidden 
by  motives  of  humanity  from  doing  any  sort  of  man 
ual  labor,  which  you  must  leave  to  those  who  live  by 
it,  I  suppose  you  take  some  sort  of  exercise  ? " 

'•  Well,"  said  Mrs.  Makely,  shaking  her  head  gaily, 
"  we  prefer  to  take  medicine." 

"  You  must  approve  of  that,"  I  said  to  the  Altru 
rian,  "  as  you  consider  exercise  for  its  own  sake 
insane  or  immoral.  But,  Mrs.  Makely,"  I  entreated, 
"  you're  giving  me  away  at  a  tremendous  rate.  I 
have  just  been  telling  Mr.  Homos  that  you  ladies  go 
in  for  athletics  so  much,  now,  in  your  summer  out 
ings,  that  there  is  danger  of  your  becoming  physically 
as  well  as  intellectually  superior  to  us  poor  fellows. 
Don't  take  that  consolation  from  me  !  " 

"I  won't,  altogether,"  she  said.  "I  couldn't  have 
the  heart  to,  after  the  pretty  way  you've  put  it.  I 
don't  call  it  very  athletic,  sitting  around  on  hotel 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  109 

piazzas  all  summer  long,  as  ninetcen-twentieths  of  us 
do.  But  I  don't  deny  that  there  is  a  Remnant,  as 
Matthew  Arnold  calls  them,  who  do  go  in  for  tennis, 
and  boating,  and  bathing,  and  tramping  and  climb 
ing."  She  paused,  and  then  she  concluded  gleefully, 
"  And  you  ought  to  see  what  wrecks  they  get  home 
in  the  fall  !  " 

The  joke  was  on  me  ;  I  could  not  help  laughing, 
though  I  felt  rather  sheepish  before  the  Altrurian. 
Fortunately,  he  did  not  pursue  the  inquiry ;  his 
curiosity  had  been  given  a  slant  aside  from  it. 

"  But  your  ladies,"  he  asked,  "  they  have  the 
summer  for  rest,  however  they  use  it.  Do  they  gen 
erally  leave  town  ?  I  understood  Mr.  Twelvemough 
to  say  so,"  he  added  with  a  deferential  glance  at 
me. 

"  Yes,  you  may  say  it  is  the  universal  custom  in 
the  class  that  can  afford  it,"  said  Mrs.  Makely.  She 
proceeded  as  if  she  felt  a  tacit  censure  in  his  question. 
"  It  wouldn't  be  the  least  use  for  us  to  stay  and  fry 
through  our  summers  in  the  city,  simply  because  our 
fathers  and  brothers  had  to.  Besides,  we  are  worn 
out  at  the  end  of  the  season,  and  they  want  us  to 
come  away  as  much  as  we  want  to  come." 


110  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

"  Ah,  I  have  always  heard  that  the  Americans  are 
beautiful  in  their  attitude  towards  women." 

"  They  are  perfect  dears,"  said  Mrs.  Makely,  "  and 
here  comes  one  of  the  best  of  them." 

At  that  moment  her  husband  came  up  and  laid  her 
shawl  across  her  shoulders.  "  Whose  character  is 
that  your  blasting  ?'"  he  asked,  jocosely. 

"  Where  in  the  world  did  you  find  it  ?  "  she  asked, 
meaning  the  shawl. 

"  It  was  where  you  left  it :  on  the  sofa,  in  the  side 
parlor.  I  had  to  take  my  life  in  my  hand,  when  I 
crossed  among  all  those  waltzcrs  in  there.  There 
must  have  been  as  many  as  three  couples  on  the  floor. 
Poor  girls  !  I  pity  them,  off  at  these  places.  The 
fellows  in  town  have  a  good  deal  better  time.  They've 
got  their  clubs,  and  they've  got  the  theatre,  and  when 
the  weather  gets  too  much  for  them,  they  can  run 
off  down  to  the  shore  for  the  night.  The  places  any 
where  within  an  hour's  ride  arc  full  of  fellows.  The 
girls  don't  have  to  dance  with  one  another  there,  or 
with  little  boys.  Of  course,  that's  all  right  if  they 
like  it  better."  He  laughed  at  his  wife,  and  winked 
at  me,  and  smoked  swiftly,  in  emphasis  of  his  irony. 

"  Then    the    young    gentlemen    whom    the    young 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  Ill 

ladies  here  usually  meet  in  society,  are  all  at  work  in 
the  cities  ?  "  the  Altrurian  asked  him,  rather  need 
lessly,  as  I  had  already  said  so. 

"  Yes,  those  who  are  not  out  West,  growing  up 
with  the  country,  except,  of  course,  the  fellows  who 
have  inherited  a  fortune.  They're  mostly  off  on 
yachts." 

"  But  why  do  your  young  men  go  West  to  grow 
up  with  the  country  ? "  pursued  my  friend. 

"  Because  the  East  is  grown  up.  They  have  got 
to  hustle,  and  the  West  is  the  place  to  hustle.  To 
make  money,"  added  Makely,  in  response  to  a  puzzled 
glance  of  the  Altrurian. 

"  Sometimes,"  said  his  wife,  "  I  almost  hate  the 
name  of  money." 

"  Well,  so  long  as  you  don't  hate  the  thing, 
Peggy." 

"  Oh,  we  must  have  it,  I  suppose,"  she  sighed. 
"  They  used  to  say  about  the  girls  who  grew  into  old 
maids  just  after  the  Rebellion  that  they  had  lost  their 
chance  in  the  war  for  the  union.  I  think  quite  as 
many  lose  their  chance  now  in  the  war  for  the  dollar." 

"  Mars  hath  slain  his  thousands,  but  Mammon  hath 

slain  his  tens  of  thousands,"   I  suggested  lightly ;  we 

8 


112  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

all  like  to  recognize  the  facts,  so  long  as  we  are  not 
expected  to  do  anything  about  them ;  then,  we  deny 
them. 

"  Yes,  quite  as  bad  as  that,"  said  Mrs.  Makely. 

"  Well,  my  dear,  you  are  expensive,  you  know," 
said  her  husband,  "  and  if  we  want  to  have  you,  why 
we've  got  to  hustle,  first." 

"  Oh,  I  don't  blame  you,  you  poor  things !  There's 
nothing  to  be  done  about  it ;  it's  just  got  to  go  on 
and  on ;  I  don't  see  how  it's  ever  to  end." 

The  Altrurian  had  been  following  us  with  that  air 
of  polite  mystification  which  I  had  begun  to  dread  in 
him.  "  Then,  in  your  good  society  you  postpone, 
and  even  forego,  the  happiness  of  life  in  the  struggle 
to  be  rich?" 

"  Well,  you  sec,"  said  Makely,  "  a  fellow  don't  like 
to  ask  a  girl  to  share  a  home  that  isn't  as  nice  as  the 
home  she  has  left." 

"  Sometimes,"  his  wife  put  in,  rather  sadly,  "  I 
think  that  it's  all  a  mistake,  and  that  we'd  be  willing 
to  share  the  privations  of  the  man  we  loved." 

"Well,"  said  Makely,  with  a  laugh,  "we  wouldn't 
like  to  risk  it." 

I  laughed  with  him,  but  his  wife  did  not,  and  in  the 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTUURIA.  113 

silence  that  ensued  there  was  nothing  to  prevent  the 
Altrurian  from  coming  in  with  another  of  his  questions. 
"  IIow  far  does  this  state  of  things  extend  down 
ward  ? "  Does  it  include  the  working-classes,  too  ? " 

"  Oh,  no !  "  we  all  answered  together,  and  Mrs. 
Makcly  said :  "  With  your  Altrurian  ideas  I  suppose 
you  would  naturally  sympathize  a  great  deal  more 
with  the  lower  classes,  and  think  they  had  to  endure 
all  the  hardships  in  our  system ;  but  if  you  could 
realize  how  the  struggle  goes  on  in  the  best  society, 
and  how  we  all  have  to  fight  for  what  we  get,  or  don't 
get,  you  would  be  disposed  to  pity  our  upper  classes, 
too." 

"  I  am  sure  I  should,"  said  the  Altrurian. 

Makcly  remarked,  "  I  used  to  hear  my  father  say 
that  slavery  was  harder  on  the  whites  than  it  was  on 
the  blacks,  and  that  he  wanted  it  done  away  with  for 
the  sake  of  the  masters." 

Makely  rather  faltered  in  conclusion,  as  if  he  were 
not  quite  satisfied  with  his  remark,  and  I  distinctly 
felt  a  want  of  proportion  in  it ;  but  I  did  not  wish  to 
say  anything.  His  wife  had  no  reluctance. 

"  Well,  there's  no  comparison  between  the  two 
things,  but  the  struggle  certainly  doesn't  affect  the 


114  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

working  classes  as  it  does  us.  They  go  on  marrying 
and  giving  in  marriage  in  the  old  way.  They  have 
nothing  to  lose,  and  so  they  can  afford  it." 

"  Blessed  am  dem  what  don't  expect  nuffin  !  Oh, 
I  tell  you  it's  a  working-man's  country,"  said  Makely, 
through  his  cigar  smoke.  "  You  ought  to  see  them 
in  town,  these  summer  nights,  in  the  parks  and 
squares  and  cheap  theatres.  Their  girls  are  not  off 
for  their  health,  anywhere,  and  their  fellows  are  not 
off  growing  up  with  the  country.  Their  day's  work 
is  over  and  they're  going  in  for  a  good  time.  And, 
then,  walk  through  the  streets  where  they  live,  and 
see  them  out  on  the  stoops  with  their  wives  and  child 
ren  !  I  tell  you,  it's  enough  to  make  a  fellow  wish  he 
was  poor  himself." 

"  Yes,"  said  Mrs.  Makely,  "  it's  astonishing  how 
strong  and  well  those  women  keep,  with  their  great 
families  and  their  hard  work.  Sometimes  I  really 
envy  them." 

"  Do  you  suppose,"  said  the  Altrurian,  "  that  they 
are  aware  of  the  sacrifices  which  the  ladies  of  the 
upper  classes  make  in  leaving  all  the  work  to  them, 
and  suffering  from  the  nervous  debility  which  seems 
to  be  the  outcome  of  your  society  life  ? " 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  115 

"  They  have  not  the  remotest  idea  of  it !  They 
have  no  conception  of  what  a  society  woman  goes 
through  with.  They  think  we  do  nothing.  They 
envy  ns,  too,  and  sometimes  they're  so  ungrateful  and 
indifferent,  if  you  try  to  help  them,  or  get  on  terms 
with  them,  that  I  believe  they  hate  us." 

"  But  that  comes  from  ignorance '  " 

"  Yes,  though  I  don't  know  that  they  are  really  any 
more  ignorant  of  us  than  we  are  of  them.  It's  the 
other  half  on  both  sides." 

"  Isn't  that  a  pity,  rather  ?  " 

"  Of  course  it's  a  pity,  but  what  can  you  do  ?  You 
can't  know  what  people  are  like  unless  you  live  like 
them,  and  then  the  question  is  whether  the  game  is 
worth  the  candle.  I  should  like  to  know  how  you 
manage  in  Altruria." 

"Why,  we  have  solved  the  problem  in  the  only 
way,  as  you  say,  that  it  can  be  solved.  We  all  live 
alike." 

"  Isn't  that  a  little,  just  a  very  trifling  little  bit 
monotonous  ? "  Mrs.  Makely  asked,  with  a  smile. 
"  But  there  is  everything,  of  course,  in  being  used  to 
it.  To  an  unrcgeneratc  spirit — like  mine,  for  exam 
ple — it  seems  intolerable." 


116  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

"  But  why  ?  When  you  were  younger,  before  you 
were  married,  you  all  lived  at  home  together. — Or, 
perhaps,  you  were  an  only  child  ?  " 

"  Oh,  no,  indeed  !     There  were  ten  of  us." 
"  Then  you  all  lived  alike,  and  shared  equally  ?  " 
"  Yes,  but  we  were  a  family." 

"  We  do  not  conceive  of  the  human  race  except  as 
a  family." 

"  Now,  excuse  me,  Mr.  Homos,  that  is  all  nonsense. 
You  cannot  have  the  family  feeling  without  love,  and 
it  is  impossible  to  love  other  people.  That  talk  about 
the  neighbor,  and  all  that,  is  all  well  enough" —  She 
stopped  herself,  as  if  she  dimly  remembered  Who  be 
gan  that  talk,  and  then  went  on :  "  Of  course  I  accept 
it  as  a  matter  of  faith,  and  the  spirit  of  it,  nobody 
denies  that ;  but  what  I  mean  is,  that  you  must  have 
frightful  quarrels  all  the  time."  She  tried  to  look  as 
if  this  were  where  she  really  meant  to  bring  up,  and 
he  took  her  on  the  ground  she  had  chosen. 

"  Yes,  we  have  quarrels.     Hadn't  you  at  home  ?  " 
"  We  fought  like  little  cats  and  dogs,  at  times." 
Makely  and  I  burst  into  a  laugh  at  her  magnani 
mous    frankness.      The   Altrurian   remained    serious. 
"  But  because  you  lived  alike,  you  knew  each  other  ; 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  117 

and  so  you  easily  made  up  your  quarrels.  It  is  quite 
as  simple  with  us,  in  our  life  as  a  human  family." 

This  notion  of  a  human  family  seemed  to  amuse 
Mrs.  Makcly  more  and  more ;  she  laughed  and  laughed 
again.  "  You  must  excuse  me  !  "  she  panted,  at  last. 
"  But  I  cannot  imagine  it !  No,  it  is  too  ludicrous. 
Just  fancy  the  jars  of  an  ordinary  family  multiplied 
by  the  population  of  a  whole  continent !  Why,  you 
must  be  in  a  perpetual  squabble !  You  can't  have 
any  peace  of  your  lives  !  It's  worse,  far  worse,  than 
our  way ! " 

"But,  madam,"  he  began,  "you  are  supposing  our 
family  to  be  made  up  of  people  with  all  the  antago 
nistic  interests  of  your  civilization.  As  a  matter  of 
fact"— 

"  No,  no  !  /  know  human  nature,  Mr.  Homos  !  " 
She  suddenly  jumped  up  and  gave  him  her  hand. 
"  Good  night !  "  she  said,  sweetly,  and  as  she  drifted 
off  on  her  husband's  arm,  she  looked  back  at  us  and 
nodded  in  gay  triumph. 

The  Altrurian  turned  upon  me  with  unabated  in 
terest.  "  And  have  you  no  provision  in  your  system 
for  finally  making  the  lower  classes  understand  the 
sufferings  and  sacrifices  of  the  upper  classes  in  their 


118  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

behalf  ?  Do  you  expect  to  do  nothing  to  bring  them 
together  in  mutual  kindness  ? 

"  Well,  not  this  evening,"  I  said,  throwing  the  end 
of  my  cigar  away.  "  I'm  going  to  bed,  aren't  you  ? " 

"  Not  yet." 

"  Well,  good  night.  Are  you  sure  you  can  find 
your  room  ?  " 

"  Oh,  yes.     Good  night." 


VI. 


I  LEFT  my  guest  abruptly,  with  a  feeling  of  vexation 
not  very  easily  definable.  His  repetition  of  questions 
about  questions  which  society  has  so  often  answered, 
and  always  in  the  same  way,  was  not  so  bad  in  him 
as  it  would  have  been  in  a  person  of  our  civilization ; 
he  represented  a  wholly  different  state  of  things,  the 
inversion  of  our  own,  and  much  could  be  forgiven 
him  for  that  reason,  just  as  in  Russia  much  could  be 
forgiven  to  an  American,  if  he  formulated  his  curiosity 
concerning  imperialism  from  a  purely  republican  ex 
perience.  I  knew  that  in  Altruria,  for  instance,  the 
possession  of  great  gifts,  of  any  kind  of  superiority, 
involved  the  sense  of  obligation  to  others,  and  the 
wish  to  identify  one's  self  with  the  great  mass  of 


120  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

men,  rather  than  the  ambition  to  distinguish  one's 
self  from  them  ;  and  that  the  Altrurians  honored  their 
gifted  men  in  the  measure  they  did  this.  A  man 
reared  in  such  a  civilization  must  naturally  find  it 
difficult  to  get  our  point  of  view ;  with  social  inclu 
sion  as  the  ideal,  he  could  with  difficulty  conceive  of 
our  ideal  of  social  exclusion ;  but  I  think  we  had  all 
been  very  patient  witla  him  ;  we  should  have  made 
short  work  with  an  American  who  had  approached  us 
with  the  same  inquiries.  *  Even  from  a  foreigner,  the 
citizen  of  a  Republic  founded  on  the  notion,  elsewhere 
exploded  ever  since  Cain,  that  one  is  his  brother's 
keeper,  the  things  he  asked  seemed  inoffensive  only 
because  they  were  puerile ;  but  they  certainly  were 
puerile.  I  felt  that  it  ought  to  have  been  self-evident 
to  him  that  when  a  commonwealth  of  sixty  million 
Americans  based  itself  upon  the  great  principle  of 
self-seeking,  self-seeking  was  the  best  thing,  and 
whatever  hardship  it  seemed  to  work,  it  must  carry 
with  it  unseen  blessings  in  ten-fold  measure.  If  a 
few  hundred  thousand  favored  Americans  enjoyed 
the  privilege  of  socially  contemning  all  the  rest,  it 
was  as  clearly  right  and  just  that  they  should  do  so, 
as  that  four  thousand  American  millionaires  should 


A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA.       121 

be  richer  than  all  the  other  Americans  put  together. 
Such,  a  status,  growing  out  of  our  political  equality 
and  our  material  prosperity  must  evince  a  divine 
purpose  to  any  one  intimate  with  the  designs  of  pro 
vidence,  and  it  seemed  a  kind  of  impiety  to  doubt  its 
perfection.  I  excused  the  misgivings,  which  I  could 
not  help  seeing  in  the  Altrurian  to  his  alien  traditions, 
and  I  was  aware  that  my  friends  had  done  so,  too. 
But  if  I  could  judge  from  myself  he  must  have  left 
them  all  sensible  of  their  effort ;  and  this  was  not 
pleasant.  I  could  not  blink  the  fact  that  although  I 
had  openly  disagreed  with  him  on  every  point  of 
ethics  and  economics,  I  was  still  responsible  for  him 
as  a  guest.  It  was  as  if  an  English  gentleman  had 
introduced  a  blatant  American  democrat  into  tory 
society;  or,  rather,  as  if  a  southerner  of  the  olden 
time  had  harbored  a  northern  abolitionist,  and  per 
mitted  him  to  inquire  into  the  workings  of  slavery 
among  his  neighbors.  People  would  tolerate  him 
as  my  guest  for  a  time,  but  there  must  be  an  end  of 
their  patience  with  the  tacit  enmity  of  his  sentiments, 
and  the  explicit  vulgarity  of  his  ideals,  and  when  the 
end  came,  I  must  be  attainted  with  him. 

I  did  not  like  the  notion  of  this,  and  I  meant  to 


122  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

escape  it  if  I  could.  I  confess  that  I  would  have 
willingly  disowned  him,  as  I  had  already  disavowed 
his  opinions,  but  there  was  no  way  of  doing  it  short 
of  telling  him  to  go  away,  and  I  was  not  ready  to  do 
that.  Something  in  the  man,  I  do  not  know  what, 
mysteriously  appealed  to  me.  He  was  not  contempt 
ibly  puerile  without  being  lovably  childlike,  and  I 
could  only  make  up  my  mind  to  be  more  and  more 
frank  with  him,  and  to  try  and  shield  him,  as  well  as 
myself,  from  the  effects  I  dreaded. 

I  fell  asleep  planning  an  excursion  further  into  the 
mountains,  which  should  take  up  the  rest  of  the  week 
that  I  expected  him  to  stay  with  me,  and  would 
keep  him  from  following  up  his  studies  of  American 
life  where  they  would  be  so  injurious  to  both  of 
us  as  they  must  in  our  hotel.  A  knock  at  rny  door 
roused  me,  and  I  sent  a  drowsy  "  Come  in  !  "  towards 
it  from  the  bed-clothes  without  looking  that  way. 

"  Good  morning ! "  came  back  in  the  rich,  gontlc 
voice  of  the  Altrurian.  I 'lifted  my  head  with  a  jerk 
from  the  pillow,  and  saw  him  standing  against  the 
closed  door,  with  my  shoes  in  his  hand.  "  Oh,  I  am 
sorry  I  waked  you  !  I  thought " — 

"  Not  at  all,  not  at  all  !  "  I  said.     "It's  quite  time, 


A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA.        123 

I  dare  say.  But  you  oughtn't  to  have  taken  the 
trouble  to  bring  my  shoes  in !  " 

"  I  wasn't  altogether  disinterested  in  it,"  he  re 
turned.  "  I  wished  you  to  compliment  me  on  them. 
Don't  you  think  they  are  pretty  well  done,  for  an 
amateur  ? "  He  came  toward  my  bed,  and  turned 
them  about  in  his  hands,  so  that  they  would  catch  the 
light,  and  smiled  down  upon  me. 

"  I  don't  understand,"  I  began. 

"Why,"  he  said,  "  I  blacked  them,  you  know." 

"  You  blacked  them  !  " 

"  Yes,"  he  returned,  easily.  "  I  thought  I  would 
go  into  the  baggage-room,  after  we  parted  last  night, 
to  look  for  a  piece  of  mine  that  had  not  been  taken 
to  my  room,  and  I  found  the  porter  there,  with  his 
wrist  bound  up.  lie  said  he  had  strained  it  in  hand 
ling  a  lady's  Saratoga — he  said  a  Saratoga  was  a  large 
trunk — and  I  begged  him  to  let  me  relieve  him  at 
the  boots  he  was  blacking.  He  refused,  at  first,  but 
I  insisted  upon  trying  my  hand  at  a  pair,  and  then  he 
let  me  go  on  with  the  men's  boots ;  he  said  he  could 
varnish  the  ladies'  without  hurting  his  wrist.  It  need 
ed  less  skill  than  I  supposed,  and  after  I  had  done  a 
few  pairs  he  said  I  could  black  boots  as  well  as  he." 


124  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

"  Did  anybody  sec  you  ? "  I  gasped,  and  I  felt  a 
cold  perspiration  break  out  on  me. 

"  No,  we  had  the  whole  midnight  hour  to  ourselves. 
The  porter's  work  with  the  baggage  was  all  over,  and 
there  was  nothing  to  interrupt  the  delightful  chat  we 
fell  into.  He  is  a  very  intelligent  man,  and  he  told 
me  all  about  that  custom  of  feeing  which  you  depre 
cate.  He  says  that  the  servants  hate  it  as  much  as 
the  guests ;  they  have  to  take  the  tips,  now,  because 
the  landlords  figure  on  them  in  the  wages,  and  they 
cannot  live  without  them.  lie  is  a  fine,  manly 
fellow,  and  " 

"  Mr.  Homos,"  I  broke  in,  with  the  strength  I  found 
in  his  assurance  that  no  one  had  seen  him  helping  the 
porter  black  boots,  "  I  want  to  speak  very  seriously 
with  you,  and  I  hope  you  will  not  be  hurt  if  I  speak 
very  plainly  about  a  matter  in  which  I  have  your 
good  solely  at  heart/'  This  was  not  quite  true,  and 
I  winced  inwardly  a  little  when  he  thanked  me  with 
that  confounded  sincerity  of  his,  which  was  so  much 
like  irony  ;  but  I  went  on  :  "  It  is  my  duty  to  you,  as 
my  guest,  to  tell  you  that  this  thing  of  doing  for 
others  is  not  such  a  simple  matter  here,  as  your  pecu 
liar  training  leads  you  to  think.  You  have  been  de- 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  125 

ccived  by  a  superficial  likeness ;  but,  really,  I  do  not 
understand  how  you  could  have  read  all  you  have 
done  about  us,  and  not  realized  before  coming  here 
that  America  and  Altruria  are  absolutely  distinct  and 
diverse  in  their  actuating  principles.  They  are  both 
republics,  I  know ;  but  America  is  a  republic  where 
every  man  is  for  himself,  and  you  cannot  help  others 
as  you  do  at  home  ;  it  is  dangerous — it  is  ridiculous. 
You  must  keep  this  fact  in  mind,  or  you  will  fall  into 
errors  that  will  be  very  embarassing  to  you  in  your 
stay  among  us,  and,"  I  was  forced  to  add  "  to  all 
your  friends.  Now,  I  certainly  hoped,  after  what  I 
jiiad  said  to  you,  and  what  my  friends  had  explained 
of  our  civilization,  that  you  would  not  have  done  a 
'thing  of  this  kind.  I  will  see  the  porter,  as  soon  as 
II  am  up,  and  ask  him  not  to  mention  the  matter  to 
any  one.  but  I  confess  I  don't  like  to  take  an  apolo 
getic  tone  with  him  ;  your  conditions  are  so  alien  to 
jpurs  that  they  will  seem  incredible  to  him,  and  he 
will  think  I  am  stuffing  him." 

"  I  don't  believe  he  will  think  that,"  said  the  Altru- 
rian,  "  and  I  hope  you  won't  find  the  case  so  bad  as 
it  seems  to  you.  I  am  extremely  sorry  to  have  done 
wrong  " — 


126  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

"  Oh,  the  thing  wasn't  wrong  in  itself.  It  was  only 
wrong  under  the  circumstances.  Abstractly,  it  is 
quite  right  to  help  a  fellow-being  who  needs  help  ;  no 
one  denies  that,  even  in  a  country  where  every  one  is 
for  himself." 

"  I  am  so  glad  to  hear  it,"  said  the  Altrurian, 
"  Then  at  least,  I  have  not  gone  radically  astray  ;  and 
I  do  not  think  you  need  take  the  trouble  to  explain 
the  Altrurian  ideas  to  the  porter.  I  have  done  that 
already,  and  they  seemed  quite  conceivable  to  him  ; 
he  said  that  poor  folks  had  to  act  upon  them,  even 
here,  more  or  less,  and  that  if  they  did  not  act  upon 
them,  there  would  be  no  chance  for  them  at  all.  Ho 
says  they  have  to  help  each  other,  very  much  as  we 
do  at  home,  and  that  it  is  only  the  rich  folks  among 
you  who  arc  independent.  I  really  don't  think  you 
need  speak  to  him  at  all,  unless  you  wish  ;  and  I  was 
very  careful  to  guard  my  offer  of  help  at  the  point 
where  I  understood  from  you  and  your  friends  that  it 
might  do  harm.  I  asked  him  if  there  was  not  some 
one  who  would  help  him  out  with  his  bootblacking 
for  money,  because  in  that  case  I  should  be  glad  to 
pay  him ;  but  he  said  there  was  no  one  about  who 
would  take  the  job ;  that  he  had  to  agree  to  black  the 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  127 

boots,  or  else  lie  would  not  have  got  the  place  of  por 
ter,  but  that  all  the  rest  of  the  help  would  consider  it 
a  disgrace,  and  would  not  help  him  for  love  or  money. 
So  it  seemed  quite  safe  to  offer  him  my  services." 

I  felt  that  the  matter  was  almost  hopeless,  but  I 
asked,  "  And  what  he  said,  didn't  that  suggest  any 
thing  else  to  you  ? " 

"  How,  anything  else  ? "  asked  the  Altrurian,  in  his 
turn. 

"  Didn't  it  occur  to  you  that  if  none  of  his  fellow 
servants  were  willing  to  help  him  black  boots,  and  if 
he  did  it  only  because  he  was  obliged  to,  it  was  hardly 
the  sort  of  work  for  you  ?  " 

"  Why,  no,"  said  the  Altrurian,  with  absolute  sim 
plicity.  He  must  have  perceived  the  despair  I  fell 
into  at  this  answer,  for  he  asked,  "  Why  should  I 
have  minded  doing  for  others  what  I  should  have  been 
willing  to  do  for  myself?" 

"  There  are  a  great  many  things  we  are  willing  to 
do  for  ourselves  that  we  are  not  willing  to  do  for 
others.  But  even  on  that  principle,  which  I  think 
false  and  illogical,  you  could  not  be  justified.  A  gen 
tleman  is  not  willing  to  black  his  own  boots.  It  is 

offensive    to    his  feelings,    to    his   self-respect;    it   is 
9 


128  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

something  he  will  not  do  if  he  can  get  anybody  else 
to  do  it  for  him." 

"  Then,  in  America,"  said  the  Altrurian,  "  it  is  not 
offensive  to  the  feelings  of  a  gentleman  to  let  another 
do  for  him  what  he  would  not  do  for  himself  ? " 

"  Certainly  not." 

"  Ah,"  he  returned,  "  then  we  understand  some 
thing  altogether  different  by  the  word  gentleman  in 
Altruria.  I  see,  now,  how  I  have  committed  a 
mistake.  I  shall  be  more  careful  hereafter." 

I  thought  I  had  better  leave  the  subject,  and,  "  By 
the  way,"  I  said,  "  how  would  you  like  to  take  a  little 
tramp  with  me  to-day,  farther  up  into  the  mountains  ?" 

"  I  should  be  delighted,"  said  the  Altrurian,  so 
gratefully,  that  I  was  ashamed  to  think  why  I  was 
proposing  the  pleasure  to  him. 

"  Well,  then,  I  shall  be  ready  to  start  as  soon  as 
we  have  had  breakfast.  I  will  join  you  down  stairs 
in  half  an  hour." 

He  left  me  at  this  hint,  though  really  I  was  half 
afraid  he  might  stay  and  offer  to  lend  me  a  hand  at 
my  toilet,  in  the  expression  of  his  national  character. 
I  found  him  with  Mrs.  Makely,  when  I  went  down, 
and  she  began,  with  a  parenthetical  tribute  to  the 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  129 

beauty  of  the  mountains  in  the  morning  light,  "  Don't 
be  surprised  to  see  me  up  at  this  unnatural  hour.  I 
don't  know  whether  it  was  the  excitement  of  our  talk 
last  night,  or  what  it  was,  but  my  sulfonal  wouldn't 
act,  though  I  took  fifteen  grains,  and  I  was  up  with 
the  lark,  or  should  have  been,  if  there  had  been  any 
lark  outside  of  literature  to  be  up  with.  However, 
this  air  is  so  glorious  that  I  don't  mind  losing  a 
night's  sleep,  now  and  then.  I  believe  that  with  a 
little  practice  one  could  get  along  without  any  sleep 
at  all,  here  ;  at  least  /  could.  I'm  sorry  to  say,  poor 
Mr.  Makely  can't,  apparently.  He's  making  up  for 
his  share  of  my  vigils,  and  I'm  going  to  breakfast 
without  him.  Do  you  know,  I've  done  a  very  bold 
thing :  I've  got  the  head  waiter  to  give  you  places  at 
our  table ;  I  know  you'll  hate  it,  Mr.  Twelvemough, 
because  you  naturally  want  to  keep  Mr.  Homos  to 
yourself,  and  I  don't  blame  you  at  all ;  but  I'm  simply 
not  going  to  let  you,  and  that's  all  there  is  about  it." 
The  pleasure  I  felt  at  this  announcement  was  not 
unmixed,  but  I  tried  to  keep  Mrs.  Makely  from  think 
ing  so,  and  I  was  immensely  relieved  when  she  found 
a  chance  to  say  to  me  in  a  low  voice,  "  I  know  just 
how  you're  feeling,  Mr.  Twelvemough,  and  I'm  going 


130  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

to  help  you  keep  him  from  doing  anything  ridiculous, 
if  I  can.  I  like  him,  and  I  think  it's  a  perfect  shame 
to  have  people  laughing  at  him.  I  know  we  can 
manage  him  between  us." 

We  so  far  failed,  however,  that  the  Altrurian  shook 
hands  with  the  head  waiter,  when  he  pressed  open 
the  wire  netting  door  to  let  us  into  the  dining-room, 
and  made  a  bow  to  our  waitress  of  the  sort  one  makes 
to  a  lady.  But  we  thought  it  best  to  ignore  these 
little  errors  of  his,  and  reserve  our  moral  strength  for 
anything  more  spectacular.  Fortunately  we  got 
through  our  breakfast  with  nothing  worse  than  his 
jumping  up,  and  stooping  to  hand  the  waitress  a 
spoon  she  let  fall ;  but  this  could  easily  pass  for 
some  attention  to  Mrs.  Makely  at  a  little  distance. 
There  were  not  many  people  down  to  breakfast,  yet ; 
but  I  could  see  that  there  was  a  good  deal  of  subdued 
sensation  among  the  waitresses,  standing  with  folded 
arms  behind  their  tables,  and  that  the  head  waiter's 
handsome  face  was  red  with  anxiety. 

Mrs.  Makely  asked  if  we  were  going  to  church. 
She  said  she  was  driving  that  way  and  would  be  glad 
to  drop  us.  "  I'm  not  going  myself,"  she  explained, 
"  because  I  couldn't  make  anything  of  the  sermon, 


A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRUKIA.       131 

with  my  head  in  the  state  it  is,  and  I'm  going  to  com 
promise  on  a  good  action.  I  want  to  carry  some 
books  and  papers  over  to  Mrs.  Camp.  Don't  you 
think  that  will  be  quite  as  acceptable,  Mr.  Homos  ? " 

"  I  should  venture  to  hope  it,"  he  said,  with  a 
tolerant  seriousness  not  altogether  out  of  keeping  with 
her  lightness. 

"  Who  is  Mrs.  Camp  ? "  I  asked,  not  caring  to 
commit  myself  on  the  question. 

"  Lizzie's  mother.  You  know  I  told  you  about 
them  last  night.  I  think  she  must  have  got  through 
the  books  I  lent  her,  and  I  know  Lizzie  didn't  like  to 
ask  me  for  more,  because  she  saw  me  talking  with 
you  and  didn't  want  to  interrupt  us.  Such  a  nice 
girl !  I  think  the  Sunday  papers  must  have  come, 
and  I'll  take  them  over,  too ;  Mrs.  Camp  is  always  so 
glad  to  get  them,  and  she  is  so  delightful  when  she 
gets  going  about  public  events.  But  perhaps  you 
don't  approve  of  Sunday  papers,  Mr,  Homos." 

"  I'm  sure  I  don't  know,  madam.  I  haven't  seen 
them  yet.  You  know  this  is  the  first  Sunday  I've 
been  in  America." 

"  Well,  I'm  sorry  to  say  you  won't  sec  the  old 
Puritan  Sabbath,"  said  Mrs.  Makely,  with  an  abrupt 


132  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

deflection  from  the  question  of  the  Sunday  papers. 
"  Though  you  ought  to,  up  in  these  hills.  The  only 
thing  left  of  it  is  rye-and-Indian  bread,  and  these 
baked  beans  and  fish-balls." 

"  But  they  are  very  good  ?  " 

"  Yes,  I  dare  say  they  are  not  the  worst  of  it." 

She  was  a  woman  who  tended  to  levity,  and  I  was 
a  little  afraid  she  might  be  going  to  say  something 
irreverent,  but  if  she  were,  she  was  forestalled  by  the 
Altrurian  asking,  "  Would  it  be  very  indiscreet, 
madam,  if  I  were  to  ask  you  some  time  to  introduce 
me  to  that  family  ?  " 

"The  Camps?"  she  returned.  "Not  at  all.  I 
should  be  perfectly  delighted."  The  thought  seemed 
to  strike  her,  and  she  asked,  "  Why  not  go  with  me 
this  morning,  unless  you  are  inflexibly  bent  on  going 
to  church,  you  and  Mr.  Twelvemough  ? " 

The  Altrurian  glanced  at  me,  and  I  said  I  should 
be  only  too  glad,  if  I  could  carry  some  books,  so  that 
I  could  compromise  on  a  good  action,  too.  "  Take 
one  of  your  own,"  she  instantly  suggested. 

"  Do  you  think  they  wouldn't  be  too  severe  upon 
it?"  I  asked. 

"  Well,  Mrs.  Camp  might,"  Mrs.  Makely  consented, 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  133 

with  a  smile.  "She  goes  in  for  rather  serious  fiction; 
but  I  think  Lizzie  would  enjoy  a  good,  old-fashioned 
love-story,  where  everybody  got  married,  as  they  do 
in  your  charming  books." 

I  winced  a  little,  for  every  one  likes  to  be  regarded 
seriously,  and  I  did  not  enjoy  being  remanded  to  the 
young-girl  public ;  but  I  put  a  bold  face  on  it,  and 
said,  "  My  good  action  shall  be  done  in  behalf  of 
Miss  Lizzie." 

Half  an  hour  later,  Mrs.  Makely  having  left  word 
with  the  clerk  where  we  were  gone,  so  that  her  hus 
band  need  not  be  alarmed  when  he  got  up,  we  were 
striking  into  the  hills  on  a  two  seated  buckboard,  with 
one  of  the  best  teams  of  our  hotel,  and  one  of  the 
most  taciturn  drivers.  Mrs.  Makely  had  the  Altru- 
rian  get  into  the  back  seat  with  her,  and,  after  some 
attempts  to  make  talk  with  the  driver,  I  leaned  over 
and  joined  in  their  talk.  The  Altrurian  was  greatly 
interested,  not  so  much  in  the  landscape — though  he 
owned  its  beauty,  when  we  cried  out  over  it  from 
point  to  point — but  in  the  human  incidents  and  fea 
tures.  He  noticed  the  cattle  in  the  fields,  and  the 
horses  we  met  on  the  road,  and  the  taste  and  comfort 
of  the  buildings,  the  variety  of  the  crops,  and  the 


134  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

promise  of  the  harvest.  I  was  glad  of  the  respite  his 
questions  gave  me  from  the  study  of  the  intimate 
character  of  our  civilization,  for  they  were  directed 
now  at  these  more  material  facts,  and  I  willingly  joined 
Mrs.  Makely  in  answering  them.  We  explained  that 
the  finest  teams  we  met  were  from  the  different  hotels 
or  'boarding-houses,  or  at  least  from  the  farms  where 
the  people  took  city  people  to  board  ;  and  that  certain 
shabby  equipages  belonged  to  the  natives  who  lived 
solely  by  cultivating  the  soil.  There  was  not  very 
much  of  the  soil  cultivated,  for  the  chief  crop  was 
hay,  with  here  and  there  a  patch  of  potatoes  or  beans, 
and  a  few  acres  in  sweet-corn.  The  houses  of  the  na 
tives,  when  they  were  for  their  use  only,  were  no  better 
than  their  turnouts  ;  it  was  where  the  city  boarder  had 
found  shelter  that  they  were  modern  and  pleasant. 
Now  and  then  we  came  to  a  deserted  homestead,  and 
I  tried  to  make  the  Altrurian  understand  how  farming 
in  New  England  had  yielded  to  the  competition  of  the 
immense  agricultural  operations  of  the  west.  "  You 
know,"  I  said,  "that  agriculture  is  really  an  operation 
out  there,  as  much  as  coal-mining  is  in  Pennsylvania, 
or  finance  in  Wall  street ;  you  have  no  idea  of  the  vast- 
ness  of  the  scale."  Perhaps  I  swelled  a  little  with 


A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA.       135 

pride  in  my  celebration  of  the  national  prosperity,  as 
it  flowed  from  our  western  farms  of  five,  and  ten,  and 
twenty  thousand  acres  ;  I  could  not  very  well  help  put 
ting  on  the  pedal  in  these  passages.  Mrs.  Makely 
listened  almost  as  eagerly  as  the  Altrurian,  for,  as  a 
cultivated  American  woman,  she  was  necessarily  quite 
ignorant  of  her  own  country,  geographically,  politically 
and  historically.  "  The  only  people  left  in  the  hill 
country  of  New  England,"  I  concluded,  "  are  those 
who  are  too  old  or  too  lazy  to  get  away.  Any  young 
man  of  energy  would  be  ashamed  to  stay,  unless  he 
wanted  to  keep  a  boarding-house  or  live  on  the  city 
vacationists  in  summer.  If  he  doesn't,  he  goes  west 
and  takes  up  some  of  the  new  land,  and  comes  back 
in  middle-life,  and  buys  a  deserted  farm  to  spend  his 
summers  on." 

"  Dear  me  !  "  said  the  Altrurian,  "  Is  it  so  simple 
as  that  ?  Then  we  can  hardly  wonder  at  their  owners 
leaving  these  worn-out  farms ;  though  I  suppose  it 
must  be  with  the  pang  of  exile,  sometimes." 

"  Oh,  I  fancy  there  isn't  much  sentiment  involved/' 
I  answered,  lightly. 

"  Whoa ! "  said  Mrs.  Makely,  speaking  to  the 
horses,  before  she  spoke  to  the  driver,  as  some  women 


136  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTPURIA. 

will.      He  pulled  them  up,  and  looked  round  at  her. 

"  Isn't  that  Reuben  Camp,  now,  over  there  by  that 
house  ? "  she  asked,  as  if  we  had  been  talking  of  him; 
that  is  another  way  some  women  have. 

"  Yes,  ma'am,"  said  the  driver. 

"  Oh,  well,  then  !  "  and  "  Reuben !  "  she  called  to 
the  young  man,  who  was  prowling  about  the  door- 
yard  of  a  sad-colored  old  farmhouse,  and  peering  into 
a  window  here  and  there.  "  Come  here  a  moment — 
won't  you,  please  ?  " 

He  lifted  his  head  and  looked  round,  and  when  he 
had  located  the  appeal  made  to  him,  he  came  down 
the  walk  to  the  gate  and  leaned  over  it,  waiting  for 
further  instructions.  I  saw  that  it  was  the  young 
man  whom  we  had  noticed  with  the  girl  Mrs.  Makely 
called  Lizzie,  on  the  hotel  piazza,  the  night  before. 

"Do  you  know  whether  I  should  find  Lizzie  at 
home,  this  morning  ?  " 

"  Yes,  she's  there  with  mother,"  said  the  young 
fellow,  with  neither  liking  nor  disliking  in  his  tone. 

"  Oh,  I'm  so  glad  !  "  said  the  lady.  "  I  didn't  know 
but  she  might  be  at  church.  What  in  the  world  has 
happened  here  ?  Is  there  anything  unusual  going  on 
inside  ?  " 


A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA.       137 

"  No,  I  was  just  looking  to  see  if  it  was  all  right. 
The  folks  wanted  I  should  come  round." 

"  Why,  where  are  they  ?  " 

"  Oh,  they're  gone." 

"Gone?" 

"  Yes  ;  gone  west.  They've  left  the  old  place,  be 
cause  they  couldn't  make  a  living  here,  any  longer." 

"  Why,  this  is  quite  a  case  in  point,"  I  said. 
"  Now,  Mr.  Homos,  here  is  a  chance  to  inform  your 
self  at  first  hand  about  a  very  interesting  fact  of  our 
civilization ; "  and  I  added,  in  a  low  voice,  to  Mrs. 
Makely,  "  Won't  you  introduce  us  ?  " 

"  Oh,  yes !  Mr.  Camp,  this  is  Mr.  Twelvemough, 
the  author — you  know  his  books,  of  course ;  and  Mr. 
Homos,  a  gentleman  from  Altruria." 

The  young  fellow  opened  the  gate  he  leaned  on, 
and  came  out  to  us.  He  took  no  notice  of  me,  but 
he  seized  the  Altrttrian's  hand  and  wrung  it.  "  I've 
heard  of  you,"  he  'said.  "  Mrs.  Makely,  were  you  go 
ing  to  our  place  ? " 

"  Why,  yes." 

"  So  do,  then  !  Mother  would  give  almost  anything 
to  see  Mr.  Homos.  We've  heard  of  Altruria,  over 
our  way,"  he  added,  to  our  friend.  '"  Mother's  been 


138  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

reading  up  all  she  can  about  it.  She'll  want  to  talk 
with  you,  and  she  won't  give  the  rest  of  us  much  of  a 
chance,  I  guess." 

"  Oh,  I  shall  be  glad  to  see  her,"  said  the  Altrurian, 
"  and  to  tell  her  everything  I  can.  But  won't  you 
explain  to  me  first  something  about  your  deserted 
farms  here?  It's  quite  a  new  thing  to  me." 

"  It  isn't  a  new  thing  to  us,"  said  the  young  fellow, 
with  a  short  laugh.  "And  there  isn't  much  to  ex 
plain  about  it.  You'll  see  them  all  through  New 
England.  When  a  man  finds  he  can't  get  his  fu 
neral  expenses  out  of  the  land,  he  don't  feel  like 
staying  to  be  buried  in  it,  and  he  pulls  up  and  goes." 

"  But  people  used  to  get  their  living  expenses 
here,"  I  suggested.  "  Why  can't  they  now  ?  " 

"Well,  they  didn't  use  to  have  western  prices  to 
fight  with ;  and  then  the  land  wasn't  wornout  so,  and 
the  taxes  were  not  so  heavy.  How  would  you  like  to 
pay  twenty  to  thirty  dollars  on  the  thousand,  and  as 
sessed  up  to  the  last  notch,  in  the  city  ?  " 

"  Why,  what  in  the  world  makes  your  taxes  so 
heavy  ? " 

"  Schools  and  roads.  We've  got  to  have  schools, 
and  you  city  folks  want  good  roads  when  you  come 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRTTRIA.  139 

here  in  the  summer,  don't  you?  Then  the  season  is 
short  and  sometimes  we  can't  make  a  crop.  The  frost 
catches  the  corn  in  the  field,  and  you  have  your 
trouble  for  your  pains.  Potatoes  are  the  only  thing 
we  can  count  on,  except  grass,  and  when  everybody 
raises  potatoes,  you  know  where  the  price  goes".""1 

"  Oh,  but  now,  Mr.  Camp,"  said  Mrs.  Makely,  lean 
ing  over  towards  him,  and  speaking  in  a  cosy  and 
coaxing  tone,  as  if  he  must  not  really  keep  the  truth 
from  an  old  friend  like  her,  "isn't  it 'a  good  deal  be 
cause  the  farmers'  daughters  want  pianos,  and  the 
farmers'  sons  want  buggies?  I  heard  Professor 
Lumen  saying,  the  other  day,  that  if  the  farmers  were 
willing  to  work,  as  they  used  to  work,  they  could  still 
get  a  good  living  off  their  farms,  and  that  they  gave 
up  their  places  because  they  were  too  lazy,  in  many 
cases,  to  farm  them  properly." 

"  He'd  better  not  let  me  hear  him  saying  that," 
said  the  young  fellow,  while  a  hot  flush  passed  over 
his  face.  He  added,  bitterly,  "  If  he  wants  to  see 
how  easy  it  is  to  make  a  living  up  here,  he  can  take 
this  place  and  try,  for  a  year  or  two  ;  he  can  get  it 
cheap.  But  I  guess  he  wouldn't  want  it  the  year 
round ;  he'd  only  want  it  a  few  months  in  the  sum- 


140  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

mer,-  when  lie  could  enjoy  the  sightliness  of  it,  and 
see  me  working  over  there  on  my  farm,  while  he 
smoked  on  his  front  porch."  He  turned  round  and 
looked  at  the  old  house,  in  silence  a  moment.  Then, 
as  he  went  on,  his  voice  lost  its  angry  ring.  "  The 
folks  here  bought  this  place  from  the  Indians,  and 
they'd  been  here  more  than  two  hundred  years.  Do 
you  think  they  left  it  because  they  were  too  lazy  to 
run  it,  or  couldn't  get  pianos  and  buggies  out  of  it, 
or  were  such  fools  as  not  to  know  whether  they  were 
well  off?  It  was  >  ^eir  home;  they  were  born,  and 
lived  and  died  Iv  .,.  There  is  the  family  burying 
ground,  over  there." 

Neither  Mrs,  Makely  nor  myself  was  ready  with  a 
reply,  and  we  left  the  word  with  the  Altrurian,  who 
suggested,  "  Still,  I  suppose  they  will  be  more  pros 
perous  in  the  west,  on  the  new  land  they  take  up  ?  " 

The  young  fellow  leaned  his  arms  on  the  wheel  by 
which  he  stood.  "  What  do  you  mean  by  taking  up 
new  land  ? " 

"  Why,  out  of  the  public  domain  " — 

"  There  ain't  any  public  domain  that's  worth  hav 
ing.  All  the  good  land  is  in  the  hands  of  railroads, 
and  farm  syndicates,  and  speculators  ;  and  if  you  want 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  141 

a  farm  in  the  west  you've  got  to  buy  it ;  the  east  is 
the  only  place  where  folks  give  them  away,  because 
they  ain't  worth  keeping.  If  you  haven't  got  the 
ready  money,  you  can  buy  one  on  credit,  and  pay  ten 
twenty  and  thirty  per  cent,  interest,  and  live  in  a  dug 
out  on  the  plains — till  your  mortgage  matures."  The 
young  man  took  his  arms  from  the  wheel  and  moved 
a  few  steps  backward,  as  he  added,  "  I'll  see  you  over 
at  the  house  later." 

The  driver  touched  his  horses,  and  we  started 
briskly  off  again.  But  I  confess  I  had  quite  enough 
of  his  pessimism,  and  as  we  drove  away  I  leaned  back 
toward  the  Altrurian,  and  said,  "  Now,  it  is  all  per 
fect  nonsense  to  pretend  that  things  are  at  that  pass 
with  us.  There  are  more  millionaires  in  America, 
probably,  than  there  are  in  all  the  other  civilized 
countries  of  the  globe,  and  it  is  not  possible  that  the 
farming  population  should  be  in  such  a  hopeless  con 
dition.  "  All  wealth  comes  out  of  the  earth,  and  you 
may  be  sure  they  get  their  full  share  of  it." 

"I  am  glad  to  hear  you  say  so,"  said  the  Altrurian, 
"  What  is  the  meaning  of  this  new  party  in  the  west 
that  seems  to  have  held  a  convention  lately  ?  I  read 
something  of  it  in  the  train  yesterday." 


142  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

"  Oh,  that  is  a  lot  of  crazy  Hayseeds,  who  don't 
want  to  pay  back  the  money  they  have  borrowed,  or 
who  find  themselves  unable  to  meet  their  interest.  It 
will  soon  blow  over.  We  are  always  having  these 
political  flurries.  A  good  crop  will  make  it  all  right 
with  them." 

, "  But  is  it  true  that  they  have  to  pay  such  rates  of 
interest  as  our  young  friend  mentioned? " 

"  Well,"  I  said,  seeing  the  thing  in  the  humorous 
light,  which  softens  for  us  Americans  so  many  of  the 
hardships  of  others,  "  I  suppose  that  man  likes  to 
squeeze  his  brother  man,  when  he  gets  him  in  his 
grip.  That's  human  nature,  you  knew." 

"  Is  it  ? "  asked  the  Altrurian. 

It  seemed  to  me  that  he  had  asked  something  like 
that  before  when  I  alleged  human  nature  in  defense 
of  some  piece  of  everyday  selfishness.  But  I  thought 
best  not  to  notice  it,  and  I  went  on  :  "  The  land  is  so 
rich  out  there  that  a  farm  will  often  pay  for  itself 
with  a  single  crop." 

"Is  it  possible?"  cried  the  Altrurian.  "Then  I 
suppose  it  seldom  really  happens  that  a  mortgage  is 
foreclosed,  in  the  way  our  young  friend  insinuated  ?  " 

"  Well,  I  can't  say  that  exactly,"  and  having  ad- 


A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA.       143 

mitted  so  much,  I  did  not  feel  bound  to  impart  a  fact 
that  popped  perversely  into  my  mind.  I  was  once 
talking  with  a  western  money-lender,  a  very  good 
sort  of  fellow,  frank  and  open  as  the  day ;  I  asked 
him  whether  the  farmers  generally  paid  off  their 
mortages,  and  he  answered  me  that  if  the  mortgag 
was  to  the  value  of  a  fourth  of  the  land,  the  farme* 
might  pay  it  off,  I  "t  if  it  were  to  a  half  or  a  third 
even,  he  never  paid  .  ,  but  slaved  on  and  died  in  his 
debts.  "You  may  be  sure,  however,"  I  concluded, 
"  that  our  young  friend  takes  a  jaundiced  view  of  the 
situation." 

"  Now,  really,"  said  Mrs.  Makely,  "  I  must  insist 
upon  dropping  this  everlasting  talk  about  money.  I 
think  it  is  perfectly  disgusting,  and  I  believe  it  was 
Mr.  Makely's  account  of  his  speculations  that  kept  me 
awake  last  night.  My  brain  got  running  on  figures 
till  the  dark  seemed  to  be  all  sown  with  dollar  marks, 
like  the  stars  in  the  milky  way.  I — ugh  !  What  in 
the  world  is  it  ?  Oh,  you  dreadful  little  things  !  " 

Mrs.  Makely  passed  swiftly  from  terror  to  hysteri 
cal  laughter  as  the  driver  pulled  up  short,  and  a  group 
of  bare-footed  children  broke  in  front  of  his  horses, 

and  scuttled  out  of  the  dust  into  the  roadside  bushes 
10 


144  A     TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRTJRIA. 

like  a  covey  of  quails.  There  seemed  to  be  a  dozen 
of  them,  nearly  all  the  same  in  size,  but  there  turned 
out  to  be  only  five  or  six ;  or  at  least  no  more  showed 
their  gleaming  eyes  and  teeth  through  the  underbrush 
in  quiet  enjoyment  of  the  lady's  alarm. 

"  Don't  you  know  that  you  might  have  got  killed  ?" 
she  demanded  with  that  severity  good  women  feel  for 
people  who  have  just  escaped  with  their  lives.  "  How 
lovely  the  dirty  little  dears  are  !  "  she  added,  in  the 
next  wave  of  emotion.  One  bold  fellow  of  six  showed 
a  half  length  above  the  bushes,  and  she  asked,  "  Don't 
you  know  that  you  oughn't  to  play  in  the  road  when 
there  arc  so  many  teams  passing  ?  Arc  all  those  your 
brothers  and  sisters  ?  " 

He  ignored  the  first  question.  "  One's  my  cousin." 
I  pulled  out  a  half-dozen  coppers,  and  held  my  hand 
toward  him.  "  See  if  there  is  one  for  each."  They 
had  no  difficulty  in  solving  the  simple  mathematical 
problem  except  the  smallest  girl,  who  cried  for  fear 
and  baffled  longing.  I  tossed  the  coin  to  her,  and  a 
little  fat  dog  darted  out  at  her  feet  and  caught  it  up 
in  his  mouth.  "  Oh,  good  gracious  !  "  I  called  out  in 
my  light,  humorous  way.  "  Do  you  suppose  he's 
going  to  spend  it  for  candy?"  The  little  people 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  145 

thought  that  a  famous  joke,  and  they  laughed  with 
the  gratitude  that  even  small  favors  inspire.  "  Bring 
your  sister  here,"  I  said  to  the  boldest  boy,  and  when 
he  came  up  with  the  little  woman,  I  put  another 
copper  into  her  hand.  "  Look  out  that  the  greedy 
dog  doesn't  get  it,"  I  said,  and  my  gaiety  met  with 
fresh  applause.  "Where  do  you  live?"  I  asked  with 
some  vague  purpose  of  showing  the  Altrurian  the 
kindliness  that  exists  between  our  upper  and  lower 
classes. 

"  Over  there,"  said  the  boy.  I  followed  the  twist 
of  his  head,  and  glimpsed  a  wooden  cottage  on  the  bor 
der  of  the  forest,  so  very  new  that  the  sheathing  had 
not  yet  been  covered  with  clapboards.  I  stood  up  in 
the  buckboard  and  saw  that  it  was  a  story  and  a  half 
high,  and  could  have  had  four  or  five  rooms  in  it.  The 
bare,  curtainless  windows  were  set  in  the  unpainted 
frames,  but  the  front  door  seemed  not  to  be  hung 
yet.  The  people  meant  to  winter  there,  however,  for 
the  sod  was  banked  up  against  the  wooden  underpin 
ning  ;  a  stove-pipe  stuck  out  of  the  roof  of  a  little 
wing  behind.  While  I  gazed,  a  young-looking  woman 
came  to  the  door,  as  if  she  had  been  drawn  by  our 
talk  with  the  children,  and  then  she  jumped  down 


146  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

from  the  threshhold,  which  still  wanted  a  doorstep, 
and  came  slowly  out  to  us.  The  children  ran  to  her 
with  their  coppers,  and  then  followed  her  back  to  us. 

Mrs.  Makely  called  to  her  before  she  reached  us, 
"  I  hope  you  weren't  frightened.  We  didn't  drive 
over  any  of  them." 

"  Oh,  I  wasn't  frightened,"  said  the  young  woman. 
"  It's  a  very  safe  place  to  bring  up  children,  in  the 
country,  and  I  never  feel  uneasy  about  them." 

"  Yes,  if  they  are  not  under  the  horses'  feet,"  said 
Mrs.  Makely,  mingling  instruction  and  amusement 
very  judiciously  in  her  reply.  "  Are  they  all  yours  ?" 

"  Only  five,"  said  the  mother,  and  she  pointed  to 
the  alien  in  her  flock.  "  He's  my  sisters's.  She  lives 
just  below  here."  Her  children  had  grouped  them 
selves  about  her,  and  she  kept  passing  her  hands 
caressingly  over  their  little  heads  as  she  talked.  "  My 
sister  has  nine  children,  but  she  has  the  rest  at  church 
with  her  today." 

"  You  don't  speak  like  an  American,"  Mrs.  Makely 
suggested. 

"  No,  we're  English.  Our  husbands  work  in  the 
quarry.  That's  my  little  palace."  The  woman 
nodded  her  head  toward  the  cottage. 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  147 

"It's  going  to  be  very  nice,"  said  Mrs.  Makely, 
with  an  evident  perception  of  her  pride  in  it. 

•'  Yes,  if  we  ever  get  money  to  finish  it.  Thank 
you  for  the  children  !  " 

"  Oh,  it  was  this  gentleman."  Mrs.  Makely  indi 
cated  me,  and  I  bore  the  merit  of  my  good  action  as 
modestly  as  I  could. 

"  Then,  thank  yo?f,  sir,"  said  the  young  woman,  and 
she  asked  Mrs.  Makely,  "  You're  not  living  about 
here,  ma'am  ? " 

"  Oh,  no,  we're  staying  at  the  hotel." 

"  At  the  hotel !     It  must  be  very  dear,  there." 

"  Yes,  it  is  expensive,"  said  Mrs.  Makely,  with  a 
note  of  that  satisfaction  in  her  voice  which  wre  all 
feel  in  spending  a  great  deal  of  money. 

"  But  I  suppose  you  can  afford  it,"  said  the  woman, 
whose  eye  was  running  hungrily  over  Mrs.  Makely's 
pretty  costume.  "  Some  are  poor,  and  some  are  rich. 
That's  the  way  the  world  has  to  be  made  up,  isn't  it  ?" 

"  Yes,"  said  Mrs.  Makely,  very  dryly,  and  the  talk 
languished  from  this  point,  so  that  the  driver  felt 
warranted  in  starting  up  his  horses.  When  we  had 
driven  beyond  earshot  she  said,  "  I  knew  she  was  not 
an  American,  as  soon  as  she  spoke,  by  her  accent,  and 


148  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

then  those  foreigners  have  no  self-respect.  That  was 
a  pretty  bold  bid  for  a  contribution  to  finish  up  her 
'  little  palace  ! '  I'm  glad  yon  didn't  give  her  any 
thing,  Mr.  Twelvemough.  I  was  afraid  your  sympa 
thies  had  been  wrought  upon." 

"  Oh,  not  at  all  !  "  I  answered.  "  I  saw  the  mischief 
I  had  done  with  the  children." 

The  Altrurian,  who  had  not  asked  anything  for  a 
long  time,  but  had  listened  with  eager  interest  to  all 
that  passed,  now  came  up  smiling  with  his  question  : 
"Will  you  kindly  tell  me  what  harm  would  have  been 
done  by  offering  the  woman  a  little  money  to  lielj: 
finish  up  her  cottage  ?  " 

I  did  not  allow  Mrs.  Makely  to  answer,  I  was  so  c, 
ger  to  air  my  political  economy.  "The  very  greatest 
harm.  It  would  have  pauperized  her.  You  have  nr 
idea  how  quickly  they  give  way  to  the  poison  of  that 
sort  of  thing.  As  soon  as  they  get  any  sort  of  help 
they  expect  more ;  they  count  upon  it,  and  they  begin 
to  live  upon  it.  The  sight  of  those  coppers  which  I 
gave  her  children — more  out  of  joke  than  charity — 
demoralized  the  woman.  She  took  us  for  rich  people, 
and  wanted  us  to  build  her  a  house.  You  have  to 
guard  against  every  approach  to  a  thing  of  that  sort." 


A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA.      149 

"  I  don't  believe,"  said  Mrs.  Makely,  "  that  an 
American  would  have  hinted,  as  she  did." 

"  No,  an  American  would  not  have  done  that,  I'm 
thankful  to  say.  They  take  fees,  but  they  don't  ask' 
charity,  yet."  We  went  on  to  exult  in  the  noble  in 
dependence  of  the  American  character  in  all  classes, 
at  some  length.  We  talked  at  the  Altrurian,  but  he 
did  not  seem  to  hear  us.  At  last,  he  asked  with  a 
faint  sigh,  "  Then,  in  your  conditions,  a  kindly  im 
pulse  to  aid  one  who  needs  your  help,  is  something  to 
be  guarded  against  as  possibly  pernicious  ?  " 

"  Exactly,"  I  said.  "  And  now  you  see  what  diffi 
culties  beset  us  in  dealing  with  the  problem  of  poverty. 
We  cannot  let  people  suffer,  for  that  would  be  cruel ; 
and  we  cannot  relieve  their  need  without  pauperizing 
them." 

"I  see,"  he  answered.    "  It  is  a  terrible  quandary." 

"  I  wish,"  said  Mrs.  Makely,  "  that  you  would  tell 
us  just  how  you  manage  with  the  poor  in  Altruria." 

"  We  have  none,"  he  replied. 

"  But  the  comparatively  poor — you  have  some  peo 
ple  who  are  richer  than  others  ? " 

"  No.     AVe   should   regard    that  as  the   worst  in- 


150  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

"  What  is  incivism  ?  " 

I  interpreted,  "  Bad  citizenship." 

"  Well  then,  if  you  will  excuse  me,  Mr.  Homos," 
she  said,  "  I  think  that  is  simply  impossible.  There 
must  be  rich  and  there  must  be  poor.  There  always 
have  been,  and  there  always  will  be.  That  woman 
said  it  as  well  as  anybody.  Didn't  Christ  himself 
say,  *  The  poor  ye  have  always  with  you  '  \  " 


VII 

THE  Altrurian  looked  at  Mrs.  Makcly  with  an 
amazement  visibly  heightened  by  the  air  of  compla 
cency  she  put  on  after  delivering  this  poser  :  "  Do  you 
really  think  Christ  meant  that  you  ought  always  to 
have  the  poor  with  you  ? "  he  asked. 

"  Why,  of  course ! "  she  answered  triumphantly. 
"  How  else  arc  the  sympathies  of  the  rich  to  be  culti 
vated  ?  The  poverty  of  some  and  the  wealth  of 
others,  isn't  that  what  forms  the  great  tie  of  human 
brotherhood?  If  we  were  all  comfortable,  or  all 
shared  alike,  there  could  not  be  anything  like  charity, 
and  Paul  said  '  the  greatest  of  these  is  charity.  '  I 
believe  it's  '  love  '  in  the  new  version,  but  it  comes  to 
the  same  thing." 

The  Altrurian  gave  a  kind  of  gasp  and  then  lapsed 


152        A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA 

into  a  silence  that  lasted  until  we  came  in  sight  of 
the  Camp  farmhouse.  It  stood  on  the  crest  of  a  road 
side  upland,  and  looked  down  the  beautiful  valley, 
bathed  in  Sabbath  sunlight,  and  away  to  the  ranges 
of  hills,  so  far  that  it  was  hard  to  say  whether  it  was 
sun  or  shadow  that  dimmed  their  distance.  Decidedly, 
the  place  was  what  the  country  people  call  sightly. 
The  old  house,  once  painted  a  Brandon  red,  crouched 
low  to  the  ground,  with  its  lean-to  in  the  rear,  and  its 
flat-arched  wood-sheds  and  wagon-houses,  stretching 
away  at  the  side  to  the  barn,  and  covering  the 
approach  to  it  with  an  unbroken  roof.  There  were 
flowers  in  the  beds  along  the  under-pinning  of  the 
house,  which  stood  close  to  the  street,  and  on  one 
side  of  the  door  was  a  clump  of  Spanish  willow ;  an 
old-fashioned  June  rose  climbed  over  it  from  the 
other.  An  aged  dog  got  stiffly  to  his  feet  from  the 
threshold  stone,  and  whimpered,  as  our  buckboard 
drew  up ;  the  poultry  picking  about  the  path  and 
among  the  chips,  lazily  made  way  for  us,  and  as  our 
wheels  ceased  to  crunch  upon  the  gravel,  we  heard 
hasty  steps,  and  Reuben  Camp  came  round  the  corner 
of  the  house  in  time  to  give  Mrs.  Makely  his  hand, 
and  help  her  spring  to  the  ground,  which  she  did  very 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  153 

lightly  ;  her  remarkable  mind  had  kept  her  body  in  a 
sort  of  sympathetic  activity,  and  at  thirty-five  she  had 
the  gracilc  ease  and  self-command  of  a  girl. 

"  Ah,  Reuben,"  she  sighed,  permitting  herself  to 
call  him  by  his  first  name,  with  the  emotion  which 
expressed  itself  more  definitely  in  the  words  that  fol 
lowed,  "  how  I  envy  you  all  this  dear  old,  home-like 
place  !  I  never  come  here  without  thinking  of  my 
grandfather's  farm  in  Massachusetts,  where  I  used  to 
go  every  summer  when  I  was  a  little  girl.  If  I  had  a 
place  like  this,  I  should  never  leave  it." 

"'Well,  Mrs.  Makely,"  said  young  Camp,  "you  can 
have  this  place  cheap,  if  you  really  want  it.  Or 
almost  any  other  place  in  the  neighborhood." 

"Don't  say  such  a  thing!"  she  returned.  "It 
makes  one  feel  as  if  the  foundations  of  the  great  deep 
were  giving  way.  I  don't  know  what  that  means, 
exactly,  but  I  suppose  it's  equivalent  to  mislaying 
George's  hatchet,  and  going  back  on  the  Declaration 
generally;  and  I  don't  like  to  hear  you  talk  so." 

Camp  seemed  to  have  lost  his  bitter  mood,  and  he 
answered  pleasantly,  "  The  Declaration  is  all  right,  as 
far  as  it  goes,  but  it  don't  help  us  to  compete  with 
the  western  farm  operations." 


154  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

"  Why,  you  believe  every  one  was  born  free  and 
equal,  don't  you  ?  "  Mrs.  Makcly  asked. 

"  Oh,  yes,  I  believe  that;  but"— 

"  Then  why  do  you  object  to  free  and  equal  com 
petition  ?  " 

The  young  fellow  laughed,  'and  said,  as  he  opened 
the  door  for  us :  "  Walk  right  into  the  parlor,  please. 
Mother  will  be  ready  for  you  in  a  minute."  He 
added,  "  I  guess  she's  putting  on  her  best  cap,  for 
you,  Mr.  Homos.  It's  a  great  event  for  her,  your 
coming  here.  It  is  for  all  of  us.  We're  glad  to 
have  you." 

"And  I'm  glad  to  be  here,"  said  the  Altrurian,  as 
simply  as  the  ojbher.  He  looked  about  the  best  room 
of  a  farm-house  that  had  never  adapted  itself  to  the 
tastes  or  needs  of  the  city  boarder,  and  was  as  stiffly 
repcllant  in  its  upholstery,  and  as  severe  in  its  deco 
ration  as  haircloth  chairs  and  dark  brown  wall-paper 
of  a  trellis-pattern,  with  drab  roses,  could  make  it. 
The  windows  were  shut  tight,  and  our  host  did  not 
offer  to  open  them.  A  fly  or  two  crossed  the  door 
way  into  the  hall,  but  made  no  attempt  to  penetrate 
the  interior,  where  we  sat  in  an  obscurity  that  left  the 
high-hung  family  photographs  on  the  walls  vague  and 


A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA.       155 

uncertain.  I  made  a  mental  note  of  it  as  a  place 
where  it  would  be  very  charactistic  to  Lave  a  rustic 
funeral  take  place  ;  and  I  was  pleased  to  have  Mrs. 
Makely  drop  into  a  sort  of  mortuary  murmur,  as  she 
said:  "  I  hope  your  mother  is  as  well  as  usual,  this 
morning  ? "  I  perceived  that  this  murmur  was  pro 
duced  by  the  sepulchral  influence  of  the  room. 

"Oh,  yes,"  said  Camp,  and  at  that  moment  a  door 
opened  from  the  room  across  the  hall,  and  his  sister 
seemed  to  bring  in  some  of  the  light  from  it  to  us, 
where  we  sat.  She  shook  hands  with  Mrs.  Makely, 
who  introduced  me  to  her,  and  then  presented  the 
Altrurian.  She  bowed  very  civilly  to  me,  but  with  a 
touch  of  severity,  such  as  country  people  find  neces 
sary  for  the  assertion  of  their  self-respect  with  strang 
ers.  I  thought  it  very  pretty,  and  instantly  saw  that 
I  could  work  it  into  some  picture  of  character ;  and  I 
was  not  at  all  sorry  that  she  made  a  difference  in 
favor  of  the  Altrurian. 

"Mother  will  be  so  glad  to  see  you,"  she  said  to 
him,  and,  "  Won't  you  come  right  in  ?  "  she  added  to 
us  all. 

We  followed  her  and  found  ourselves  in  a  large, 
low,  sunny  room  on  the  southeast  corner  of  the  house, 


156  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

which  had  no  doubt  once  been  the  living  room,  but 
which  was  now  given  up  to  the  bed-ridden  invalid  ;  a 
door  opened  into  the  kitchen  behind,  where  the  table 
was  already  laid  for  the  midday  meal,  with  the  plates 
turned  down  in  the  country  fashion,  and  some  netting 
drawn  over  the  dishes  to  keep  the  flies  away. 

Mrs.  Makely  bustled  up  to  the  bedside  with  her 
energetic,  patronizing  cheerfulness.  "  Ah,  Mrs. 
Camp,  I  am  glad  to  sec  you  looking  so  well  this 
morning.  I've  been  meaning  to  run  over  for  several 
days  past,  but  I  couldn't  find  a  moment  till  this  morn 
ing,  and  I  knew  you  didn't  object  to  Sunday  visits." 
She*  took  the  invalid's  hand  in  hers,  and  with  the  air 
of  showing  how  little  she  felt  any  inequality  between 
them,  she  leaned  over  and  kissed  her,  where  Mrs. 
Camp  sat  propped  against  her  pillows.  She  had  a 
large,  nobly-moulded  face  of  rather  masculine  contour, 
and  at  the  same  time  the  most  motherly  look  in  the 
world.  Mrs.  Makely  bubbled  and  babbled  on,  and 
every  one  waited  patiently  till  she  had  done,  and 
turned  and  said,  toward  the  Altrurian,  "  I  have  ven 
tured  to  bring  my  friend,  Mr.  Homos,  with  me.  He 
is  from  Altruria."  Then  she  turned  to  me,  and  said, 
"Mr.  Twelvcmough,  you  know  already  through  his 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  157 

delightful  books ; "  but  although  she  paid  me  this 
perfunctory  compliment,  it  was  perfectly  apparent  to 
me  that  in  the  esteem  of  this  disingenuous  woman  the 
distinguished  stranger  was  a  far  more  important  per 
son  than  the  distinguished  author.  Whether  Mrs. 
Camp  read  my  perception  of  this  fact  in  my  face  or 
not,  I  cannot  say,  but  she  was  evidently  determined 
that  I  should  not  feel  a  difference  in  her.  She  held 
out  her  hand  to  me  first,  and  said  that  I  never  could 
know  how  many  heavy  hours  I  had  helped  to  lighten 
for  her,  and  then  she  turned  to  the  Altrurian,  and 
took  his  hand.  "  Oh  !  "  she  said,  with  a  long,  deep, 
drawn  sigh,  as  if  that  were  the  supreme  moment  of 
her  life.  "  And  are  you  really  from  Altruria  ?  It 
seems  too  good  to  be  true  !  "  Her  devout  look  and 
her  earnest  tone  gave  the  commonplace  words  a  quality 
that  did  not  inhere  in  them,  but  Mrs.  Makcly  took 
them  on  their  surface. 

"Yes,  doesn't  it?"  she  made  haste  to  interpose, 
before  the  Altrurian  could  say  anything.  "  That  is 
just  the  way  we  all  feel  about  it,  Mrs.  Camp.  I 
assure  you,  if  it  were  not  for  the  accounts  in  the 
papers,  and  the  talk  about  it  everywhere,  I  couldn't 
believe  there  was  any  such  place  as  Altruria;  and  if  it 


158  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

were  not  for  Mr.  Twelvemough  here — who  lias  to  keep 
all  his  inventions  for  his  novels,  as  a  mere  matter  of 
business  routine, — I  might  really  suspect  him  and  Mr. 
Homos  of — well,  ivorkiny  us,  as  my  husband  calls  it." 
The  Altrurian  smiled  politely,  but  vaguely,  as  if  he 
had  not  quite  caught  her  meaning,  and  I  made  answer 
for  both  :  "  I  am  sure,  Mrs.  Makely,  if  you  could  un 
derstand  my  peculiar  state  of  mind  about  Mr.  Homos, 
you  would  never  believe  that  I  was  in  collusion  with 
him.  I  find  him  quite  as  incredible  as  you  do.  There 
are  moments  when  he  seems  so  entirely  subjective 
with  me,  that  I  feel  as  if  he  were  no  more  definite  or 
tangible  than  a  bad  conscience." 

"  Exactly  ! "  said  Mrs.  Makely,  and  she  laughed  out 
her  delight  in  my  illustration. 

The  Altrurian  must  have  perceived  that  we  were 
joking,  though  the  Camps  all  remained  soberly  silent. 
"  I  hope  it  isn't  so  bad  as  that,"  he  said,  "  though  I 
have  noticed  that  I  seem  to  affect  you  all  with  a  kind 
of  misgiving.  I  don't  know  just  what  it  is  ;  but  if  I 
could  remove  it,  I  should  be  very  glad  to  do  so." 

Mrs.  Makely  very  promptly  seized  her  chance  : 
"  Well,  then,  in  the  first  place,  my  husband  and  I 
were  talking  it  over  last  night,  after  we  left  you,  and 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  159 

that  was  one  of  the  things  that  kept  us  awake ;  it 
turned  into  money  afterward.  It  isn't  so  much  that  a 
whole  continent,  as  big  as  Australia,  remained  undis- 
coved  till  within  such  a  very  few  years,  as  it  is  the 
condition  of  things  among  you :  this  sort  of  all  living 
for  one  another,  and  not  each  one  for  himself.  My 
husband  says  that  is  simply  moonshine  ;  such  a  thing 
never  was  and  never  can  be ;  it  is  opposed  to  human 
nature,  and  would  take  away  incentive,  and  all  motive 
for  exertion  and  advancement  and  enterprise.  I  don't 
know  what  he  didn't  say  against  it ;  but  one  thing : 
he  says  it's  perfectly  un-American."  The  Altrurian  re 
mained  silent,  gravely  smiling,  and  Mrs.  Makcly  added 
with  her  most  engaging  little  manner  :  "  I  hope  you 
won't  feel  hurt,  personally  or  patriotically,  by  what 
I've  repeated  to  you.  I  know  my  husband  is  awfully 
Philistine,  though  he  is  such  a  good  fellow,  and  I 
don't,  by  any  means,  agree  with  him  on  all  those 
points ;  but  I  would  like  to  know  what  you  think  of 
them.  The  trouble  is,  Mrs.  Camp,"  she  said,  turning 
to  the  invalid,  "  that  Mr.  Homos  is  so  dreadfully  re 
ticent  about  his  own  country,  and  I  am  so  curious  to 
hear  of  it  at  first  hands,  that  I  consider  it  justifiable 
to  use  any  means  to  make  him  open  up  about  it." 


160       A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA, 

"There  is  no  offense,"  the  Altrurian  answered  for 
himself,  "  in  what  Mr.  Makely  says,  though,  from  the 
Altrurian  point  of  view,  there  is  a  good  deal  of  error. 
Docs  it  seem  so  strange  to  you,"  he  asked,  addressing 
himself  to  Mrs.  Camp,  "  that  people  should  found  a 
civilization  on  the  idea  of  living  for  one  another,  in 
stead  of  each  for  himself  ?  " 

"  No,  indeed !  "  she  answered.  "  Poor  people  have 
always  had  to  live  that  way,  or  they  could  not  have 
lived  at  all." 

"  That  was  what  I  understood  your  porter  to  say 
last  night,"  said  the  Altrurian  to  me.  He  added,  to 
the  company  generally :  "  I  suppose  that  even  in 
America  there  are  more  poor  people  than  there  arc 
rich  people  ? " 

"Well,  I  don't  know  about  that,"  I  said.  "  I  sup 
pose  there  are  more  people  independently  rich  than 
there  are  people  independently  poor." 

"  We  will  let  that  formulation  of  it  stand.  If  it 
is  true,  I  do  not  sec  why  the  Altrurian  system  should 
be  considered  so  very  un-American.  Then,  as  to 
whether  there  is  or  ever  was  really  a  practical  altruism, 
a  civic  expression  of  it,  I  think  it  cannot  be  denied 
that  among  the  first  Christians,  those  who  immediately 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  1G1 

followed  Christ,  and  might  be  supposed  to  l>c  directly 
influenced  by  his  life,  there  was  an  altruism  practiced 
as  radical  as  that  which  we  have  organized  into  a 
national  polity  and  a  working  economy  in  Altruria." 

"  Ah,  but  you  know,"  said  Mrs.  Makely,  with  the 
air  of  advancing  a  point  not  to  be  put  aside,  "  they 
had  to  drop  that.  It  was  a  dead  failure.  They  found 
that  they  couldn't  make  it  go  at  all,  among  cultivated 
people,  and  that,  if  Christianity  was  to  advance,  they 
would  have  to  give  up  all  that  crankish  kind  of  idol 
atry  of  the  mere  letter.  At  any  rate,"  she  went  on, 
with  the  satisfaction  we  all  feel  in  getting  an  opponent 
into  close  quarters,  "you  must  confess  that  there  is  a 
much  greater  play  of  individuality  here." 

Before  the  Altrurian  could  reply,  young  Camp  said: 
u  If  you  want  to  sec  American  individuality,  the  real, 
simon-pure  article,  you  ought  to  go  down  to  one  of 
our  big  factory  towns,  and  look  at  the  mill-hands 
coming  home  in  droves  after  a  day's  work,  young 
girls  and  old  women,  boys  and  men,  all  fluffed  over 
with  cotton,  and  so  dead-tired  that  they  can  hardly 
walk.  They  come  shambling  along  with  all  the  in 
dividuality  of  a  flock  of  sheep." 
'  "  Some,"  said  Mrs.  Makely,  heroically,  as  if  she 


162  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

were  one  of  these,  "  must  be  sacrificed.  Of  course, 
some  are  not  so  individual  as  others.  A  great  deal 
depends  upon  temperament." 

"  A  great  deal  more  depends  upon  capital,"  said 
Camp,  with  an  offensive  laugh.  "  If  you  have  capital 
in  America,  you  can  have  individuality  ;  if  you  haven't, 
you  can't." 

His  sister,  who  had  not  taken  part  in  the  talk  be 
fore,  said,  demurely  :  "  It  seems  to  me  you've  got  a 
good  deal  of  individuality,  Reub,  and  you  haven't  got 
a  great  deal  of  capital,  either,"  and  the  two  young- 
people  laughed  together. 

Mrs.  Makely  was  one  of  those  fatuous  women  whose 
eagerness  to  make  a  point,  excludes  the  consideration 
even  of  their  own  advantage.  "  I'm  sure,"  she  said,  as 
if  speaking  for  the  upper  classes,  "  we  haven't  got  any 
individually  at  all.  AVe  arc  as  like  as  so  many  peas, 
or  pins.  In  fact,  you  have  to  be  so,  in  society.  If  you 
keep  asserting  your  own  individuality  too  much,  people 
avoid  you.  It's  very  vulgar,  and  the  greatest  bore." 

"Then  you  don't  find  individuality  so  desirable, 
after  all,"  said  the  Altrurian. 

"  I  perfectly  detest  it !  "  cried  the  lady,  and  evi 
dently  she  had  not  the  least  notion  where  she  was  in 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  163 

the  argument.  "  For  my  part,  I'm  never  happy, 
except  when  I've  forgotten  myself  and  the  whole 
individual  bother." 

Her  declaration  seemed  somehow  to  close  the  in 
cident,  and  we  were  all  silent  a  moment,  which  I 
employed  in  looking  about  the  room,  and  taking  in 
with  my  literary  sense,  the  simplicity  and  even  bare 
ness  of  its  furnishing.  There  was  the  bed  where  the 
invalid  lay,  and  near  the  head,  a  table  with  a  pile  of 
books  and  a  kerosene  lamp  on  it,  and  I  decided  that 
she  was  a  good  deal  wakeful,  and  that  she  read  by 
that  lamp,  when  she  could  not  sleep  at  night.  Then 
there  were  the  hard  chairs  we  sat  on,  and  some  home 
made  hooked  rugs,  in  rounds  and  ovals,  scattered 
about  the  clean  floor;  there  was  a  small  melodeon 
pushed  against  the  wall ;  the  windows  had  paper 
shades,  and  I  recalled  that  I  had  not  seen  any  blinds 
on  the  outside  of  the  house.  Over  the  head  of  the 
bed  hung  a  cavalryman's  sword,  with  its  belt;  the 
sword  that  Mrs.  Makely  had  spoken  of.  It  struck  me 
as  a  room  where  a  great  many  things  might  have  hap 
pened,  and  I  said  :  "  You  can't  think,  Mrs.  Camp,  how 
glad  I  am  to  see  the  inside  of  your  house.  It  seems 
to  me  so  typical." 


164  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

A  pleased  intelligence  showed  itself  in  her  face, 
and  she  answered :  "  Yes,  it  is  a  real  old-fashioned 
farmhouse.  We  have  never  taken  boarders  and  so 
we  have  kept  it  as  it  was  built,  pretty  much,  and  only 
made  such  changes  in  it  as  we  needed  or  wanted  for 
ourselves." 

"  It's  a  pity,  "  I  went  on,  following  up  what  I 
thought  a  fortunate  lead,  '"  that  we  city  people  see  so 
little  of  the  fanning  life,  when  we  conic  into  the 
country.  I  have  been  here  now  for  several  seasons, 
and  this  is  the  first  time  I  have  been  inside  a  farmer's 
house." 

"  Is  it  possible  !  "  cried  the  Altrurian,  with  an  air 
of  utter  astonishment ;  and  when  I  found  the  fact 
appeared  so  singular  to  him,  I  began  to  be  rather 
proud  of  its  singularity. 

11  Yes,  I  suppose  that  most  city  people  come  and 
go,  year  after  year,  in  the  country,  and  never  make 
any  sort  of  acquaintance  with  the  people  who  live 
there  the  year  round.  We  keep  to  ourselves,  in  the 
hotels,  or  if  we  go  out  at  all,  it  is  to  make  a  call  upon 
some  city  cottager,  and  so  we  do  not  get  out  of  the 
vicious  circle  of  our  own  over-intimacy  with  ourselves, 
and  our  ignorance  of  others." 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  165 

"  And  you  regard  that  as  a  great  misfortune  ?  " 
asked  the  Altrurian. 

"  Why,  it's  inevitable.  There  is  nothing  to  bring 
us  together,  unless  it's  some  happy  accident,  like  the 
present.  But  we  don't  have  a  traveler  from  Altruria 
to  exploit  every  day,  and  so  we  have  no  business  to 
come  into  people's  houses." 

u  You  would  have  been  welcome  in  ours,  long  ago, 
Mr.  Twelvemough,"  said  Mrs.  Camp. 

"  But,  excuse  me  !  "  said  the  Altrurian.  "  What 
you  say  really  seems  dreadful  to  me.  Why,  it  is  as 
if  you  were  not  the  same  race,  or  kind  of  men ! " 

"  Yes,"  I  answered.  "  It  has  sometimes  seemed 
to  me  as  if  our  big  hotel  there  were  a  ship,  anchored 
off  some  strange  coast.  The  inhabitants  come  out 
with  supplies,  and  carry  on  their  barter  with  the  ship's 
steward,  and  we  sometimes  sec  them  over  the  side, 
but  we  never  speak  to  them,  or  have  anything  to  do 
with  them.  We  sail  away  at  the  close  of  the  season, 
and  that  is  the  end  of  it  till  next  summer." 

The  Altrurian  turned  to  Mrs.  Camp.  "And  how 
do  you  look  fit  it  ?  How  does  it  seem  to  you  ? " 

"I  don't  believe  we  have  thought  about  it  very 
much  ;  but  now  that  Mr.  Twelvemough  has  spoken  of 


166  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

it,  I  can  see  that  it  does  look  that  way.  And  it  seems 
very  strange,  doesn't  it,  for  we  arc  all  the  same  people, 
and  have  the  same  language,  and  religion  and  country 
—the  country  that  my  husband  fought  for,  and  I  sup 
pose  I  may  say,  died  for  ;  he  was  never  the  same  man 
after  the  war.  It  does  appear  as  if  we  had  some  in 
terests  in  common,  and  might  find  it  out  if  we  ever 
came  together." 

"  It's  a  great  advantage,  the  city  people  going  into 
the  country  so  much  as  they  do  now,"  said  Mrs. 
Makcly.  "  They  bring  five  million  dollars  into  the 
state  of  New  Hampshire,  alone,  every  summer." 

She  looked  round  for  the  general  approval  which 
this  fact  merited,  and  young  Camp  said  :  "  And  it 
shows  how  worthless  the  natives  arc,  that  they  can't 
make  both  ends  meet,  with  all  that  money,  but  have 
to  give  up  their  farms  and  go  west,  after  all.'  I  sup 
pose  you  think  it  comes  from  wanting  buggies  and 
pianos." 

"  Well,  it  certainly  comes  from  something,"  said 
Mrs.  Makcly,  with  the  courage  of  her  convictions. 

She  was  evidently  not  going  to  be  put  down  by  that 
sour  young  fellow,  and  I  was  glad  of  it,  though  L 
must  say  I  thought  the  thing  she  left  to  rankle  in  his 


A    TRAVELER    FR  DM    ALTRURIA.  167 

mind  from  our  former  meeting  had  not  been  said  in 
very  good  taste.  I  thought,  too,  that  she  would  not 
fare  best  in  any  encounter  of  wits  with  him,  and  I 
rather  trembled  for  the  result.  I  said,  to  relieve  the 
strained  situation,  "  I  wish  there  was  some  way  of  our 
knowing  each  other  better.  I'm  sure  there's  a  great 
deal  of  good  will  on  both  sides." 

"  No,  there  isn't,"  said  Camp,  "  or  at  least  I  can 
answer  for  our  side,  that  there  isn't.  You  come  into 
the  country  to  get  as  much  for  your  money  as  you  can, 
and  we  mean  to  let  you  have  as  little  as  we  can. 
That's  the  whole  story,  and  if  Mr.  Homos  believes 
anything  different,  he's  very  much  mistaken." 

"  I  hadn't  formed  any  conclusion  in  regard  to  the 
matter,  which  is  quite  new  to  me,"  said  the  Altrnriau, 
mildly.  "  But  why  is  there  no  basis  of  mutual  kind 
ness  between  you  ? " 

"  Because  it's  like  everything  else  with  us,  it's  a 
question  of  supply  and  demand,  and  there  is  no  room 
for  any  mutual  kindness  in  a  question  of  that  kind. 
Even  if  there  were,  there  is  another  thing  that  would 
kill  it.  The  summer  folks,  as  we  call  them,  look  down 
on  the  natives,  as  they  call  us,  and  we  know  it." 

"  Now,  Mr.  Camp,  I  am  sure  that  vou  cannot  say  I 


168  A    TRAVELER   I  .'ROM    ALTRURIA. 

look  down  on  the  natives,'    said  Mrs.  Makely,  with  an 
air  of  argument. 

The  young  fellow  laughed.  "Oh,  yes,  you  do,"  he 
said,  not  unamiably,  and  he  added,  "and  you've  got 
the  right  to.  We're  not  fit  to  associate  with  you,  and 
you  know  it,  and  we  know  it.  You've  got  more 
money,  and  you've  got  nicer  clothes,  and  you've  got 
prettier  manners.  You  talk  about  things  that  most 
natives  never  heard  of,  and  you  care  for  things  they 
never  saw.  I  know  it's  the  custom  to  pretend  differ 
ently,  but  I'm  not  going  to  pretend  differently."  I 
recalled  what  my  friend,  the  banker,  said  about  throw 
ing  away  cant,  and  I  asked  -nysclf  if  I  were  in  the 
presence  of  some  such  free  sj.  irit  again.  I  did  not 
see  how  young  Camp  could  afford  it ;  but  then  I  re 
flected  that  he  had  really  nothing  to  lose  by  it,  for  he 
did  not  expect  to  make  anything  out  of  us;  Mrs. 
Makely  would  probably  not  give  up  his  sister  as 
seamstress,  If  the  girl  continued  to  work  so  well  and 
so  cheaply  as  she  said.  "  Suppose,"  he  went  on, 
"  that  some  old  native  took  you  at  your  word,  and 
came  to  call  upon  you  at  the  hotel,  with  his  wife,  just 
as  one  of  the  city  cottagers  would  do  if  he  wanted  to 
make  your  acquaintance  ?  " 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  169 

"  I  should  be  perfectly  delighted !  "  said  Mrs. 
Makely,  and  I  should  receive  them  with  the  greatest 
possible  cordiality." 

"  The  same  kind  of  cordiality  that  you  would  show 
to  the  cottagers  ? " 

u  I  suppose  that  I  should  feel  that  I  had  more  in 
common  with  the  cottagers.  We  should  be  interested 
in  the  same  things,  aud  we  should  probably  know  the 
same  people  and  have  more  to  talk  about  " — 

"  You  would  both  belong  to  the  same  class,  and 
that  tells  the  whole  story.  If  you  were  out  west,  and 
the  owner  of  one  of  those  big,  twenty  thousand  acre 
farms  called  on  you  w'tli  his  wife,  would  you  act  to 
ward  them  as  you  would  toward  our  natives  ?  You 
wouldn't !  You  would  all  be  rich  people  together, 
and  you  would  understand  each  other  because  you 
had  money." 

"  Now,  that  is  not  so,"  Mrs.  Makely  interrupted. 
"  There  are  plenty  of  rich  people  one  Wouldn't  wish 
to  know  at  all,  and  who  really  can't  get  into  society ; 
who  are  ignorant  and  vulgar.  And  then  when  you 
come  to  money,.  I  don' t  see  but  what  country  people 
are  as  glad  to  get  it  as  anybody." 

"  Oh,  gladder,"  said  the  young  man. 


170  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

"  Well  ? "  demanded  Mrs.  Makcly,  as  if  this  were  a 
final  stroke  of  logic.  The  young  man  did  not  reply, 
and  Mrs.  Makely  continued  :  "  Now  I  will  appeal  to 
your  sister  to  say  whether  she  has  ever  seen  any  diff 
erence  in  my  manner  toward  her  from  what  I  show  to 
all  the  young  ladies  in  the  hotel."  The  young  girl 
flushed,  and  seemed  reluctant  to  answer.  "  Why, 
Lizzie  !  "  cried  Mrs.  Makely,  and  her  tone  showed 
that  she  was  really  hurt. 

The  scene  appeared  to  me  rather  cruel  and  I 
glanced  at  Mrs.  Camp,  with  an  expectation  that  she 
would  say  something  to  relieve  it.  But  she  did  not. 
Her  large,  benevolent  face  expressed  only  a  quiet 
interest  in  the  discussion. 

"You  know  very  well,  Mrs.  Makely,"  said  the  girl, 
"  you  don't  regard  me  as  you  do  the  young  ladies  in 
the  hotel." 

There  was  no  resentment  in  her  voice  or  look,  but 
only  a  sort  of  regret,  as  if,  but  for  this  grievance,  she 
could  have  loved  the  woman  from  whom  she  had 
probably  had  much  kindness.  The  tears  came  into 
Mrs.  Makcly's  eyes,  and  she  turned  toward  Mrs. 
Camp.  "  And  is  this  the  way  you  all  feel  toward 
us  ?  "  she  asked. 


A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA.       171 

"  Why  shouldn't  we  ?  "  a-jked  the  invalid,  in  her 
turn.  "But,  no,  it  isn't  the  way  all  the  country  peo 
ple  feel.  Many  of  them  feel  as  you  would  like  to 
have  them  feel ;  but  that  is  because  they  do  not  think. 
When  they  think,  they  feel  as  we  do.  But  I  don't 
blame  you.  You  can't  help  yourselves,  any  more  than 
we  can.  We're  all  bound  up  together  in  that,  at 
least." 

At  this  apparent  relenting,  Mrs.  Makely  tricked  her 
beams  a  little,  and  said,  plaintively,  as  if  offering  her 
self  for  further  condolence  :  "  Yes,  that  is  what  that 
woman  at  the  little  shanty  back  there  said :  some  have 
to  be  rich,  and  some  have  to  be  poor  ;  it  takes  all 
kinds  to  make  a  world." 

"  How  would  you  like  to  be  one  of  those  that  have 
to  be  poor?"  asked  young  Camp,  with  an  evil  grin. 

"  I  don't  know,"  said  Mrs.  Makely,  with  unexpected 
spirit ;  "  but  I  am  sure  that  I  should  respect  the  feel 
ings  of  all,  rich  or  poor." 

"  I  am  sorry  if  we  have  hurt  yours,  Mrs.  Makely," 
said  Mrs.  Camp,  with  dignity.  "  You  asked  us  cer. 
tain  questions,  and  we  thought  you  wished  us  to  reply 
truthfully.  We  could  not  answer  you  with  smooth 
things." 


172       A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA. 

"  But  sometimes  you  do,"  said  Mrs.  Makely,  and 
the  tears  stood  in  her  eyes  again.  "  And  you  know 
how  fond  I  am  of  you  all ! " 

Mrs.  Camp  wore  a  bewildered  look.  "  Perhaps  we 
have  said  more  than  we  ought.  But  I  couldn't  help 
it,  and  I  don't  see  how  the  children  could,  when  you 
asked  them  here,  before  Mr.  Homos." 

I  glanced  at  the  Altrurian,  sitting  attentive  and 
silent,  and  a  sudden  misgiving  crossed  my  mind  con 
cerning  him.  \Vas  he  really  a  man,  a  human  entity, 
a  personality  like  ourselves,  or  was  lie  merely  a  sort  of 
spiritual  solvent,  sent  for  the  moment  to  precipitate 
whatever  sincerity  there  was  in  us,  and  show  us  what 
the  truth  was  concerning  our  relations  to  each  other  ? 
It  was  a  fantastic  conception,  but  I  thought  it  was  one 
that  I  might  employ  in  some  sort  of  purely  romantic 
design,  and  I  was  professionally  grateful  for  it.  I 
said,  with  a  humorous  gaiety ;  "  Yes,  we  all  seem  to 
have  been  compelled  to  be  much  more  honest  than  we 
like  ;  and  if  Mr.  Ilomos  is  going  to  write  an  account 
of  his  travels,  when  he  gets  home,  he  can't  accuse  us 
of  hypocrisy,  at  any  rate.  And  I  always  used  to 
think  it  was  one  of  our  virtues  !  What  with  Mr. 
Camp,  here,  and  my  friend,  the  banker,  at  the  hotel, 


A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRUUIA.       173 

I  don't  think  he'll  have  much  reason  to  complain  even 
of  our  reticence." 

"  Well,  whatever  he  says  of  us,"  sighed  Mrs. 
Makcly,  with  a  pious  glance  at  the  sword  over  the 
bed,  "  he  will  have  to  say  that,  in  spite  of  our  divis 
ions  and  classes,  we  are  all  Americans,  and  if  we 
haven't  the  same  opinions  and  ideas  on  minor  matters, 
we  all  have  the  same  country." 

"  I  don't  know  about  that,"  came  from  Reuben 
Camp,  with  shocking  promptness.  "  I  don't  believe 
we  all  have  the  same  country.  America  is  one  thing 
for  you,  and  it's  quite  another  thing  for  us.  America 
means  ease,  and  comfort,  and  amusement  for  you, 
year  in  and  year  out,  and  if  it  means  work,  it's  work 
that  you  wish  to  do.  For  us,  America  means  work 
that  we  have  to  do,  and  hard  work,  all  the  time,  if 
we're  going  to  make  both  ends  meet.  It  means  liberty 
for  you  ;  but  what  liberty  lias  a  man  got  who  doesn't 
know  where  his  next  meal  is  coming  from  ?  Once  I 
was  in  a  strike,  when  I  was  working  on  the  railroad, 
and  I've  seen  men  come  and  give  up  their  liberty  for 
a  chance  to  earn  their  family's  living.  They  knew 
they  were  right,  and  that  they  ought  to  have  stood  up 
for  their  rights ;  but  they  had  to  lie  down,  and  lick 


174  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

the  hand  that  fed  them  !  Yes,  we  are  all  Americans, 
but  I  guess  we  haven't  all  got  the  same  country,  Mrs. 
Makely.  What  sort  of  a  country  has  a  black-listed 
man  got  ? " 

"A  black-listed  man?"  she  repeated.  "I  don't 
know  what  you  mean." 

"  Well,  a  kind  of  man  I've  seen  in  the  mill  towns, 
that  the  bosses  have  all  got  on  their  books  as  a  man 
that  isn't  to  be  given  work  on  any  account ;  that's  to 
be  punished  with  hunger  and  cold,  and  turned  into 
the  street,  for  having  offended  them ;  and  that's  to  be 
made  to  suffer  through  his  helpless  family,  for  having 
offended  them." 

"  Excuse  me,  Mr.  Camp,"  I  interposed,  "  but  isn't 
a  black-listed  man  usually  a  man  who  has  made  him 
self  prominent  in  some  labor  trouble  ? " 

"  Yes,"  the  young  fellow  answered,  without  seeming 
sensible  of  the  point  I  had  made. 

"  Ah  !  "  I  returned.  "  Then  you  can  hardly  blame 
the  employers  for  taking  it  out  of  him  in  any  way 
they  can.  That's  human  nature." 

"  Good  heavens  !  "  the  Altrurian  cried  out.  "  Is  it 
possible  that  in  America  it  is  human  nature  to  take 
away  the  bread  of  a  man's  family,  because  he  has 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  175 

gone  counter  to  your  interest  or  pleasure  on  some 
economical  question  ?  " 

"Well,  Mr.  Twelvemough  seems  to  think  so," 
sneered  the  young  man.  "But  whether  it's  human 
nature  or  not,  it's  a  fact  that  they  do  it,  and  you  can 
guess  how  much  a  black-listed  man  must  love  the 
country  where  such  a  thing  can  happen  to  him.  What 
should  you  call  such  a  thing  as  black-listing  in  Altru- 
ria?" 

"Oh,  yes,"  Mrs.  Makely  pleaded,  "do  let  us  get 
him  to  talking  about  Altruria,  on  any  terms.  I  think 
all  this  about  the  labor  question  is  so  tiresome ;  don't 
you,  Mrs.  Camp  ?  " 

Mrs.  Camp  did  not  answer ;  but  the  Altrurian  said, 
in  reply  to  her  son  :  "We  should  have  no  name  for 
such  a  thing,  for  with  us  such  a  thing  would  be  im 
possible.  There  is  no  crime  so  henious,  with  us,  that 
the  punishment  would  take  away  the  criminal's  chance 
of  earning  his  living." 

"  Oh,  if  he-  was  a  criminal,"  said  young  Camp,  "  he 
would  be  all  right,  here.  The  state  would  give  him  a 
chance  to  earn  his  living,  then." 

"  But  if  he  had  no  other  chance  of  earning  his  liv 
ing,  and  had  committed  no  offense  against  the  laws" — 
12 


176  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

"  Then  the  state  would  let  him  take  to  the  road. 
Like  that  fellow  !  " 

He  pulled  aside  the  shade  of  the  window,  where  he 
sat,  and  we  saw  pausing  before  the  house,  and  glanc 
ing  doubtfully  at  the  door-step,  where  the  dog  lay,  a 
vile  and  loathsome-looking  tramp,  a  blot  upon  the 
sweet  and  wholesome  landscape,  a  scandal  to  the 
sacred  day.  His  rags  burlesqued  the  form  which  they 
did  not  wholly  hide ;  his  broken  shoes  were  covered 
with  dust;  his  coarse  hair  came  in  a  plume 
through  his  tattered  hat ;  his  red,  sodden  face,  at  once 
fierce  and  timid,  was  rusty  with  a  fortnight's  beard. 
He  offended  the  eye  like  a  visible  stench,  and  the 
wretched  carrion  seemed  to  shrink  away  from  our 
gaze,  as  if  he  were  aware  of  his  loathsomeness. 

"  Really,"  said  Mrs.  Makcly,  "  I  thought  those  fel 
lows  -were  arrested,  now.  It  is  too  bad  to  leave  them 
at  large.  They  are  dangerous."  Young  Camp  left 
the  room  and  we  saw  him  going  out  toward  the  tramp. 

"  Ah,  that's  quite  right !  "  said  the  lady.  "  I  hope 
Reuben  is  going  to  send  him  about  his  business. 
Why,  surely  he's  not  going  to  feed  the  horrid  crea 
ture  ! "  she  added,  as  Camp,  after  a  moment's  parley 
with  the  tramp,  turned  with  him,  and  disappeared 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  177 

round  the  corner  of  the  house.  "  Now,  Mrs.  Camp, 
I  think  that  is  really  a  very  bad  example.  It's  en 
couraging  them.  Very  likely,  he'll  go  to  sleep  in 
your  barn,  and  set  it  on  fire  with  his  pipe.  What  do 
you  do  with  tramps  in  Altruria,  Mr.  Homos  ? " 

The  Altrurian  seemed  not  to  have  heard  her.  He 
said  to  Mrs.  Camp:  "Then  I  understand  from  some 
thing  your  son  let  fall  that  he  has  not  always  been 
at  home  with  you,  here.  Does  he  reconcile  himself 
easily  to  the  country  after  the  excitement  of  town  life  ? 
I  have  read  that  the  cities  in  America  are  draining 
the  country  of  the  young  people." 

"  I  don't  think  he  was  sorry  to  come  home,"  said 
the  mother  with  a  touch  of  fond  pride.  "  But  there 
was  no  choice  for  him  after  his  father  died ;  he  was 
always  a  good  boy,  and  he  has  not  made  us  feel  that 
we  were  keeping  him  away  from  anything  better. 
When  his  father  was  alive  we  let  him  go,  because  then 
we  were  not  so  dependent,  and  I  wished  him  to  try 
his  fortune  in  the  world,  as  all  boys  long  to  do.  But 
he  is  rather  peculiar,  and  he  seems  to  have  got  quite 
enough  of  the  world.  To  be  sure,  I  don't  suppose 
he's  seen  the  brightest  side  of  it.  He  first  went  to 
work  in  the  mills  down  at  Ponkwasset,  but  he  was 


178  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

laid  off  there,  when  the  hard  times  came,  and  there 
was  so  much  overproduction,  and  he  took  a  job  of 
railroading,  and  was  braking  on  a  freight  train  when 
his  father  left  us." 

Mrs.  Makely  said,  smiling,  "  No,  I  don't  think  that 
was  the  brightest  outlook  in  the  world.  No  wrondcr 
he  has  brought  back  such  gloomy  impressions.  I  am 
sure  that  if  he  could  have  seen  life  under  brighter 
auspices  he  would  not  have  the  ideas  he  has." 

"  Very  likely,"  said  the  mother  dryly.  "  Our  ex 
periences  have  a  great  deal  to  do  with  forming  our 
opinions.  But  I  am  not  dissatisfied  with  my  son's 
ideas.  I  suppose  Reuben  got  a  good  many  of  his 
ideas  from  his  father :  he's  his  father  all  over  again. 
My  husband  thought  slavery  was  wrong,  and  lie  went 
into  the  war  to  fight  against  it.  He  used  to  say  when 
the  war  was  over  that  the  negroes  were  emancipated, 
but  slavery  was  not  abolished  yet." 

"What  in  the  world  did  he  mean  by  that?"  de 
manded  Mrs.  Makely. 

"Something  you  wouldn't  understand  as  we  do.  I 
tried  to  carry  on  the  farm  after  he  first  went,  and  be 
fore  Reuben  was  large  enough  to  help  me  much,  and 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTJIURIA.  179 

ought  to  be  in  school,  and  I  suppose  I  overdid.  At 
any  rate  that  was  when  I  had  my  first  shock  of  paral 
ysis.  I  never  was  very  strong,  and  I  presume  my. 
health  was  weakened  by  my  teaching  school  so  much, 
and  studying,  before  I  was  married.  But  that  doesn't 
matter  now,  and  hasn't  for  many  a  year.  The  place 
was  clear  of  debt,  then,  but  I  had  to  get  a  mortgage 
put  on  it.  The  savings  bank  down  in  the  village  took 
it,  and  we've  been  paying  the  interest  ever  since. 
My  husband  died  paying  it,  and  my  son  will  pay  it 
all  my  life,  and  then  I  suppose  the  bank  will  foreclose. 
The  treasurer  was  an  old  playmate  of  my  hus 
band's,  and  he  said  that  as  long  as  either  of  us  lived, 
the  mortgage  could  lie." 

"  How  splendid  of  him  !  "  said  Mrs.   Makcly.      "  I 
should  think  you  had  been  very  fortunate." 

"  I  said  that  you  would  not  see  it  as  we  do,"  said 
the  invalid  patiently. 

The   Altrurian   asked  :    "  Are   there   mortgages   on 
many  of  the  farms  in  the  neighborhood  ? " 

"Nearly  all,"  said  Mrs.  Camp.     "We  seem  to  own 
them,  but  in  fact  they  own  us." 

Mrs.  Makely  hastened  to  say  :  "  My  husband  thinks 
it's   the  best   way   to  have   your   property.      If  you 


180  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

mortgage  it  close  up,  you  have  all  your  capital  free, 
and  you  can  keep  turning  it  over.  That's  what  you 
ought  to  do,  Mrs.  Camp.  But  what  was  the  slavery 
that  Captain  Camp  said  was  not  abolished  yet  ? " 

The  invalid  looked  at  her  a  moment  without  reply 
ing,  and  just  then  the  door  of  the  kitchen  opened, 
and  young  Camp  came  in,  and  began  to  gather  some 
food  from  the  table  on  a  plate. 

"  Why  don't  you  bring  him  to  the  table,  Rcub  ?  " 
his  sifter  called  to  him. 

"  Oh,  he  says  he'd  rather  not  come  in,  as  long  as 
we  have  company,  lie  says  he  isn't  dressed  for  din 
ner ;  left  his  spike-tail  in  the  city." 

The  young  man  laughed  and  his  sister  with  him. 


VIII. 

YOUNG  Camp  carried  out  the  plate  of  victuals  to 
the  tramp,  and  Mrs.  Makcly  said  to  his  mother,  "  I 
suppose  you  would  make  the  tramp  do  some  sort  of 
work  to  earn  his  breakfast  on  week-days  ? " 

"  Not  always,"  Mrs.  Camp  replied.  "  Do  the 
boarders  at  the  hotel  always  work  to  earn  their  break 
fast  ? " 

"  No,  certainly  not,"  said  Mrs.  Makely,  with  the 
sharpness  of  offence.  "  But  they  always  pay  for  it." 

"  I  don't  think  that  paying  for  a  thing  is  earning  it. 
Perhaps  some  one  else  earned  the  money  that  pays 
for  it.  But  I  believe  there  is  too  much  work  in  the 
world.  If  I  were  to  live  my  life  over  again,  I  should 
not  work  half  so  hard.  My  husband  and  I  took  this 


182  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

place  when  we  were  young  married  people,  and  began 
working  to  pay  for  it.  We  wanted  to  feel  that  it  was 
ours,  that  we  owned  it,  and  that  our  children  should 
own  it  afterwards.  We  both  worked  all  day  long  like 
slaves,  and  many  a  moonlight  night  we  were  up  till 
morning,  almost,  gathering  the  stones  from  our  fields, 
and  burying  them  in  deep  graves  that  we  had  dug  for 
them.  But  we  buried  our  youth,  and  strength,  and 
health  in  those  graves,  too,  and  what  for?  I  don't 
own  the  farm  that  we  worked  so  hard  to  pay  for,  and 
my  children  won't.  That  is  what  it  has  all  come  to. 
We  were  rightly  punished  for  our  greed,  I  suppose. 
Perhaps  no  one  has  a  right  to  own  any  portion  of  the 
earth.  Sometimes  I  think  so,  but  my  husband  and  I 
carried  this  farm,  and  now  the  savings  bank  owns  it. 
That  seems  strange,  doesn't  it  ?  I  suppose  you'll  say 
that  the  bank  paid  for  it.  Well,  perhaps  so ;  but  the 
bank  didn't  earn  it.  When  I  think  of  that  I  don't  al 
ways  think  that  a  person  who  pays  for  his  breakfast 
has  the  best  right  to  a  breakfast." 

I  could  see  the  sophistry  of  all  this,  but  I  had  not 
the  heart  to  point  it  out ;  I  felt  the  pathos  of  it,  too. 
Mrs.  Makely  seemed  not  to  see  the  one  nor  to  feel  the 
other,  very  distinctly.  "  Yes,  but  surely,"  she  said, 


A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA.      183 

"  if  you  give  a  tramp  his  breakfast  without  making 
him  work  for  it,  you  must  sec  that  it  is  encouraging 
idleness.  And  idleness  is  very  corrupting — the  sight 
of  it." 

"You  mean  to  the  country  people?  Well,  they 
have  to  stand  a  good  deal  of  that.  The  summer  folks 
that  spend  four  or  five  months  of  the  year  here,  don't 
seem  to  do  anything  from  morning  till  night." 

"  Ah,  but  you  must  recollect  that  they  arc  resting/ 
You  have  no  idea  how  hard  they  all  work  in  town  dur 
ing  the  winter,"  Mrs.  Makely  urged,  with  an  air  of 
argument. 

"  Perhaps  the  tramps  arc  resting,  too.  At  any 
rate,  I  don't  think  the  sight  of  idleness  in  rags,  and 
begging  at  back  doors,  is  very  corrupting  to  the  coun 
try  people  ;  I  never  heard  of  a  single  tramp  who  had 
started  from  the  country  ;  they  all  come  from  the 
cities.  It's  the  other  kind  of  idleness  that  tempts  our 
young  people.  The  only  tramps  that  my  son  says  he 
ever  envies  are  the  well  dressed,  strong  young  fellows 
from  town,  that  go  tramping  through  the  mountains 
for  exercise  every  summer." 

The  ladies  both  paused.  They  seemed  to  have  got 
to  the  end  of  their  tether ;  at  least  Mrs.  Makely  had 


184  A     TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRUKIA. 

apparently  nothing  else  to  advance,  and  I  said  lightly, 
"But  that  is  just  the  kind  of  tramps  that  Mr.  Homos 
would  most  disapprove  of.  He  says  that  in  Altruria 
they  would  consider  exercise  for  exercise'  sake  a 
wicked  waste  of  force,  and  little  short  of  lunacy." 

I  thought  my  exaggeration  might  provoke  him  to 
denial,  but  he  seemed  not  to  have  found  it  unjust. 
"Why,  you  know,"  he  said  to  Mrs.  Camp,  "  in  Altru 
ria  every  one  works  with  his  hands,  so  that  the  hard 
work  shall  not  all  fall  to  any  one  class  ;  and  this 
manual  labor  of  each  is  sufficient  to  keep  the  body  in 
health,  as  well  as  to  earn  a  living.  After  the  three 
hours'  work,  which  constitutes  a  day's  work  with  us, 
is  done,  the  young  people  have  all  sorts  of  games  and 
sports,  and  they  carry  them  as  late  into  life  as  the 
temperament  of  each  demands.  But  what  I  was  say 
ing  to  Mr.  Twelvemough — perhaps  I  did  not  make 
myself  clear — was  that  we  should  regard  the  sterile 
putting  forth  of  strength  in  exercise,  if  others  were 
each  day  worn  out  with  hard  manual  labor,  as  insane 
or  immoral.  But  I  can  account  for  it  differently  with 
you,  because  I  understand  that  in  your  conditions  a 
person  of  leisure  could  not  do  any  manual  labor  with 
out  taking  away  the  work  of  some  one  who  needed  it 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  185 

to  live  by  ;  and  could  not  even  relieve  an  overworked 
laborer,  and  give  him  the  money  for  the  work  without 
teaching  him  habits  of  idleness.  In  Altruria  we  can 
all  keep  ourselves  well  by  doing  each  his  share  of 
hard  work,  and  we  can  help  those  who  are  exhausted, 
when  such  a  thing  happens,  without  injuring  them 
materially  or  morally." 

Young  Camp  entered  at  this  moment  and  the  Altru- 
rian  hesitated.  "  Oh,  do  go  on  !  "  Mrs.  Makcly  en 
treated.  She  added  to  Camp,  "  We've  got  him  to 
talking  about  Altruria  at  last,  and  we  wouldn't  have 
him  stopped  for  worlds." 

The  Altrurian  looked  around  at  all  our  faces,  and 
no  doubt  read  our  eager  curiosity  in  them,  lie  smiled, 
and  said,  "  I  shall  be  very  glad  I'm  sure.  But  I  do  not 
think  you  will  find  anything  so  remarkable  in  our 
civilization,  if  you  will  conceive  of  it  as  the  outgrowth 
of  the  neighborly  instinct.  In  fact,  neighborliness  is 
the  essence  of  Altrurianism.  If  you  will  imagine 
having  the  same  feeling  toward  all,"  he  explained  to 
Mrs.  Makcly,  "  as  you  have  toward  your  next  door 
neighbor  " — 

"  My  next  door  neighbor  !  "  she  cried.  "  But  I  don't 
know  the  people  next  door !  We  live  in  a  large 


186  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

apartment  house,  some  forty  families,  and  I  assure 
you  I  do  not  know  a  soul  among  them." 

He  looked  at  her  with  a  puzzled  air,  and  she  con 
tinued,  "  Sometimes  it  does  seem  rather  hard.  One 
day  the  people  on  the  same  landing  with  us,  lost  one 
of  their  children,  and  I  should  never  have  been  a 
whit  the  wiser,  if  my  cook  hadn't  happened  to  men 
tion  it.  The  servants  all  know  each  other ;  they  meet 
in  the  back  elevator,  and  get  acquainted.  I  don't  en 
courage  it.  You  can't  tell  what  kind  of  families  they 
belong  to." 

"  But  surely,"  the  Altrurian  persisted,  "  you  have 
friends  in  the  city  whom  you  think  of  as  your  neigh 
bors  ? " 

"  No,  I  can't  say  that  I  have,"  said  Mrs.  Makely. 
"  I  have  my  visiting  list,  but  I  shouldn't  think  of  any 
body  on  that  as  a  neighbor." 

The  Altrurian  looked  so  blank  and  baffled  that  I 
could  hardly  help  laughing.  "  Then  I  should  not 
know  how  to  explain  Altruria  to  you,  I'm  afraid." 

"  Well,"  she  returned  lightly,  "  if  it's  anything  like 
ncighborliness,  as  I've  seen  it  in  small  places,  deliver 
me  from  it !  I  like  being  independent.  That's  why 
I  like  the  city.  You're  let  alone." 


A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA        187 

11 1  was  down  in  New  York,  once,  and  I  went 
through  some  of  the  streets  and  houses  where  the  poor 
people  live,"  said  young  Camp,  "  and  they  seemed  to 
know  each  other,  and  to  be  quite  neighborly." 

"And  would  you  like  to  be  all  messed  in  .with  each 
other,  that  way  ?  "  demanded  the  lady. 

"  Well,  I  thought  it  was  better  than  living  as  we  do 
in  the  country,  so  far  apart  that  we  never  see  each 
other,  hardly.  And  it  seems  to  me  better  than  not 
having  any  neighbors  at  all." 

"Well,  every  one  to  his  taste,"  said  Mrs.  Makcly. 
"  I  wish  you  would  tell  us  how  people  manage  with 
you,  socially,  Mr.  Homos." 

"  Why,  you  know,"  he  began,  "we  have  neither  city 
nor  country  in  your  sense,  and  so  we  are  neither  so 
isolated  nor  so  crowded  together.  You  feel  that  you 
lose  a  great  deal,  in  not  seeing  each  other  oftener  ?  " 
he  asked  Camp. 

"  Yes.  Folks  rust  out,  living  alone.  It's  human 
nature  to  want  to  get  together." 

"  And  I  understand  Mrs.  Makely  that  it  is  human 
nature  to  want  to  keep  apart  ?  " 

"  Oh,  no,  but  to  come  together  independently,"  she 
answered. 


188  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

"  Well  that  is  what  we  have  contrived  in  our  life 
at  home.  I  should  have  to  say,  in  the  first  place, 
that  "— 

"  Excuse  me,  just  one  moment,  Mr.  Homos  !  "  said 
Mrs.  Makcly.  This  perverse  woman  was  as  anxious  to 
hear  about  Altruria  as  any  of  us,  but  she  was  a  wom 
an  who  would  rather  hear  the  sound  of  her  own  voice 
than  any  other,  even  if  she  were  dying,  as  she  would 
call  it,  to  hear  the  other.  The  Altrurian  stopped 
politely,  and  Mrs.  Makcly  went  on  :  "I  have  been 
thinking  of  what  Mr.  Camp  was  saying  about  the 
black-listed  men,  and  their  all  turning  into  tramps  " — 

"  But  I  didn't  say  that,  Mrs.  Makcly,"  the  young 
fellow  protested,  in  astonishment. 

"  Well,  it  stands  to  reason  that  if  the  tramps  have 
all  been  black-listed  men  " — 

"But  I  didn't  say  that,  cither!  " 

"  No  matter !  What  I  am  trying  to  get  at  is  this  : 
if  a  workman  .has  made  himself  a  nuisance  to  the 
employers,  haven't  they  a  right  to  punish  him  in  any 
way  they  can  ?  " 

"  I  believe  there's  no  law  yet,  against  black-listing," 
said  Camp. 

"  Very  well,   then,   I  don't  see  what  they've  got  to 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  189 

complain  of.  The  employers  surely  know  their  own 
business.  " 

"  They  claim  to  know  the  men's  too.  That's  what 
they're  always  saying  ;  they  will  manage  their  own 
affairs  in  their  own  way.  But  no  man,  or  company, 
that  does  business  on  a  large  scale,  has  any  affairs 
that  are  not  partly  other  folks'  affairs,  too.  All  the 
saying  in  the  world  won't  make  it  different." 

"Very well,  then,"  said  Mrs.  Makcly,  with  a  force 
of  argument  which  she  seemed  to  think  was  irresis 
tible,  "  I  think  the  workmen  had  better  leave  things 
to  the  employers,  and  then  they  won't  get  black-listed. 
It's  as  broad  as  it's  long."  I  confess,  that  although  I 
agreed  with  Mrs.  Makely  in  regard  to  what  the  work 
men  had  better  do,  her  position  had  been  arrived  at 
by  such  extraordinary  reasoning  that  I  blushed  for 
her  ;  at  the  same  time,  I  wanted  to  laugh.  She  con 
tinued  triumphantly,  "  You  sec,  the  employers  have 
ever  so  much  more  at  stake." 

"  The  men  have  everything  at  stake  ;  the  work  of 
their  hands,"  said  the  young  fellow. 

"  Oh,  but  surely,"  said  Mrs.  Makely,  "you  wouldn't 
set  that  against  capital  ?  You  wouldn't  compare  the 
two  ?  " 


190  A    TKAVELEU    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

"  Yes,  I  should,"  said  Camp,  and  I  could  sec  his 
eye  kindle  and  his  jaw  stiffen. 

"  Then,  I  suppose  you  would  say  that  a  man  ought 
to  get  as  much  for  his  work  as  an  employer  gets  for 
his  capital.  If  you  think  one  has  as  much  at  stake  as 
the  other,  you  must  think  they  ought  to  be  paid 
alike." 

"  That  is  just  what  I  think,"  said  Camp,  and  Mrs. 
Makely  burst  into  a  peal  of  amiable  laughter. 

"  Now,  that  is  too  preposterous!  " 

"  Why  is  it  preposterous  ?  "  he  demanded,  with  a 
quivering  nostril. 

"  Why,  simply  because  it  z's,"  said  the  lady,  but 
she  did  not  say  why,  and  although  I  thought  so,  too, 
I  was  glad  she  did  not  attempt  to  do  it,  for  her  con 
clusions  seemed  to  me  much  better  than  her  reasons. 

The  old  wooden  clock  in  the  kitchen  began  to 
strike,  and  she  rose  briskly  to  her  feet,  and  went  and 
laid  the  books  she  had  been  holding  in  her  lap  on  the 
table  beside  Mrs.  Camp's  bed.  "  We  must  really  be 
going,"  she  said,  as  she  leaned  over  and  kissed  the 
invalid.  "  It  is  your  dinner  time,  and  we  shall  barely 
get  back  for  lunch,  if  we  go  by  the  Loop  road ;  and  I 
want  very  much  to  have  Mr.  Homos  see  the  Witch's 


A    TKAYKLEIl    FROM    ALTRURIA.  191 

Falls,  on  the  way.  1  iiavo  got  two  or  three  of  the 
books  here  that  Mr.  Makely  brought  me  last  night — I 
sha'n't  have  time  to  read  them  at  once — and  I'm 
smuggling  in  one  of  Mr.  Twclvemough's,  that  he's 
too  modest  to  present  for  himself."  She  turned  a  gay 
glance  upon  me,  and  Mrs.  Camp  thanked  me,  and  a 
number  of  civilities  followed  from  all  sides.  In  the 
process  of  their  exchange,  Mrs.  Makely's  spirits  per 
ceptibly  rose,  and  she  came  away  in  high  good-humor 
with  the  whole  Camp  family.  "  Well,  now,  I  am 
sure,"  she  said  to  the  Altrurian,  as  we  began  the  long 
ascent  of  the  Loop  road,  "  you  must  allow  that  you 
have  seen  some  very  original  characters.  But  how 
warped  people  get  living  alone  so  much  !  That  is  the 
great  drawback  of  the  country.  Mrs.  Camp  thinks  the 
savings  bank  did  her  a  real  injury  in  taking  a  mort 
gage  on  her  place,  and  Reuben  seems  to  have  seen 
just  enough  of  the  outside  world  to  get  it  all  wrong  1 
But  they  are  the  best-hearted  creatures  in  the  world, 
and  I  know  you  won't  misunderstand  them.  That  un 
sparing  country  bluntness,  don't  you  think  it's  per 
fectly  delightful  ?  I  do  like  to  stir  poor  Reuben  up, 
and  get  him  talking.  He  is  a  good  boy,  if  he  is  so 

wrong-headed,    and  he's  the    most    devoted  son  and 
13 


192  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

brother  in  the  world.  Very  few  young  fellows  would 
waste  their  lives  on  an  old  farm  like  that ;  I  suppose 
when  his  mother  dies  he  will  marry  and  strike  out  for 
himself  in  some  growing  place." 

"  He  did  not  seem  to  think  the  world  held  out  any 
very  bright  inducements  for  him  to  leave  home,"  the 
Altrurian  suggested. 

"  Oh,  let  him  get  one  of  these  lively,  pushing 
Yankee  girls  for  a  wife,  and  he  will  think  very  differ 
ently,"  said  Mrs.  Makely. 

The  Altrurian  disappeared  that  afternoon,  and  I 
saw  little  or  nothing  of  him  till  the  next  day  at 
supper.  Then  he  said  he  had  been  spending  the  time 
with  young  Camp,  who  had  shown  him  something  of 
the  farm  work,  and  introduced  him  to  several  of  the 
neighbors ;  he  was  very  much  interested  in  it  all,  be 
cause  at  home  he  was,  at  present,  engaged  in  farm 
work  himself,  and  he  was  curious  to  contrast  the  Amer 
ican  and  Altrurian  methods.  We  began  to  talk  of  the 
farming  interest  again,  later  in  the  day,  when  the 
members  of  our  little  group  came  together,  and  I  told 
them  what  the  Altrurian  had  been  doing.  The  doctor 
had  been  suddenly  called  back  to  town;  but  the 
minister  was  there,  and  the  lawyer,  and  the  professor, 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  193 

and  the  banker,  and  the  manufacturer.  It  was  the 
banker  who  began  to  comment  on  what  I  said,  and 
he  seemed  to  be  in  the  frank  humor  of  the  Saturday 
night  before.  "  Yes,"  he  said,  "  it's  a  hard  life,  and 
they  have  to  look  sharp,  if  they  expect  to  make  both 
ends  meet.  I  would  not  like  to  undertake  it  myself, 
with  their  resources." 

The  professor  smiled,  in  asking  the  Altrurian : 
"  Did  your  agricultural  friends  tell  you  anything  of 
the  little  rural  traffic  in  votes  that  they  carry  on  about 
election  time  ?  That  is  one  of  the  side  means  they 
have  of  making  both  ends  meet." 

"  I  don't  understand,"  said  the  Altrurian. 

"  Why,  you  know  that  you  can  buy  votes  among  our 
virtuous  yeoman,  from  two  dollars  up,  at  the  ordinary 
elections.  When  party  feeling  runs  high,  and  there 
are  vital  questions  at  stake,  the  votes  cost  more." 

The  Altrurian  looked  round  at  us  all,  aghast :  "  Do 
you  mean  that  Americans  buy  votes  ? " 

The  professor  smiled  again.  "  Oh,  no ;  I  only 
mean  that  they  sell  them.  Well,  I  don't  wonder  that 
they  rather  prefer  to  blink  the  fact ;  but  it  is  a  fact, 
nevertheless,  and  pretty  notorious." 

"  Good   heavens !  "    cried   the    Altrurian.       "  And 


194  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

what  defense  have  they  for  such  treason  ?  I  don't 
mean  those  who  sell ;  from  what  I  have  seen  of  the 
bareness  and  hardship  of  their  lives,  I  could  well  im 
agine  that  there  might,  sometimes,  come  a  pinch 
when  they  would  be  glad  of  the  few  dollars  that  they 
could  get  in  that  way ;  but  what  have  those  who  buy 
to  say  ?  " 

"  Well,"  said  the  professor,  "  it  isn't  a  transaction 
that's  apt  to  be  talked  about,  much,  on  either  side." 

"  I  think,"  the  banker  interposed,  "  that  there  is 
some  exaggeration  about  that  business  ;  but  it  certainly 
exists,  and  I  suppose  it  is  a  growing  evil  in  the  country. 
I  fancy  it  arises,  somewhat,  from  a  want  of  clear 
thinking  on  the  subject.  Then,  there  is  no  doubt  but 
it  comes,  sometimes,  from  poverty.  A  man  sells  his 
vote,  as  a  woman  sells  her  person,  for  money,  when 
neither  can  turn  virtue  into  cash.  They  feel  that 
they  must  live,  and  neither  of  them  would  be  satisfied 
if.  Dr.  Johnson  told  them  he  didn't  see  the  necessity. 
In  fact,  I  shouldn't,  myself,  if  I  were  in  their  places. 
You  can't  have  the  good  of  a  civilization,  like  ours,  with 
out  having  the  bad  ;  but  I  am  not  going  to  deny  that 
the  bad  is  bad.  Some  people  like  to  do  that ;  but  I 
don't  find  my  account  in  it.  In  either  case,  I  confess 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  195 

that  I  think  the  buyer  is  worse  than  the  seller — in 
comparably  worse.  I  suppose  you  are  not  troubled 
with  either  case,  in  Altruria?" 

"  Oh,  no  !  "  said  the  Altrurian,  with  an  utter  horror, 
which  no  repetition  of  his  words  can  give  the  sense 
of.  "  It  would  be  unimaginable." 

"Still,"  the  banker  suggested,  "you  have  cakes 
and  ale,  and  at  times  the  ginger  is  hot  in  the  mouth?" 

"  I  don't  pretend  that  we  have  immunity  from 
error ;  but  upon  such  terms  as  you  have  described, 
we  have  none.  It  would  be  impossible." 

The  Altrurian's  voice  expressed  no  contempt,  but 
only  a  sad  patience,  a  melancholy  surprise,  such  as  a 
celestial  angel  might  feel  in  being  suddenly  confronted 
with  some  secret  shame  and  horror  of  the  Pit. 

"  Well,"  said  the  banker,  "  with  us,  the  only  way 
is  to  take  the  business  view  and  try  to  strike  an  aver 
age  somewhere." 

"  Talking  of  business,"  said  the  professor,  turning 
to  the  manufacturer,  who  had  been  quietly  smoking, 
"  why  don't  some  of  you  capitalists  take  hold  of  farm 
ing,  here  in  the  east,  and  make  a  business  of  it  as 
they  do  in  the  west  ? " 

"Thank  you,"  said  the  other,  "if  you  mean  me,  I 


196  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

would  rather  not  invest."  He  was  silent  a  moment, 
and  then  he  went  on,  as  if  the  notion  were  beginning 
to  win  upon  him :  "  It  may  come  to  something  like 
that,  though.  If  it  does,  the  natural  course,  I  should 
think,  would  be  through  the  railroads.  It  would  be  a 
very  easy  matter  for  them  to  buy  up  all  the  good 
farms  along  their  lines  and  put  tenants  on  them,  and 
run  them  in  their  own  interest.  Really,  it  isn't  a  bad 
scheme.  The  waste  in  the  present  method  is  enor 
mous,  and  there  is  no  reason  why  the  roads  should 
not  own  the  farms,  as  they  are  beginning  to  own  the 
mines.  They  could  manage  them  better  than  the 
small  farmers  do,  in  every  way.  I  wonder  the  tiring^ 
hasn't  occurred  to  some  smart  railroad  man." 

We  all  laughed  a  little,  perceiving  the  semj-ironical 
spirit  of  his  talk ;  but  the  Altrurian  must  have  taken 
it  in  dead  earnest :  "  But,  in  that  case,  the  number  of 
people  thrown  out  of  work  would  be  very  great, 
wouldn't  it?  And  what  would  become  of  them  ?  " 

"  Well,  they  would  have  whatever  their  farms 
brought,  to  make  a  new  start  with  somewhere  else ; 
and,  besides,  that  question  of  what  would  become  of 
people  thrown  out  of  work  by  a  given  improvement, 
is  something  that  capital  cannot  consider.  We  used 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  197 

to  introduce  a  bit  of  machinery,  every  now  and  then, 
in  the  mill,  that  threw  out  a  dozen,  or  a  hundred  peo 
ple  ;  but  we  couldn't  stop  for  that." 

"  And  you  never  knew  what  became  of  them  ?  " 

"  Sometimes.  Generally  not.  We  took  it  for 
granted  that  they  would  light  on  their  feet,  somehow." 

"  And  the  state — the  whole  people — the  govern 
ment — did  nothing  for  them  ?  " 

"  If  it  became  a  question  of  the  poor-house,  yes." 

"  Or  the  jail,"  the  lawyer  suggested. 

"  Speaking  of  the  poor-house,"  said  the  professor, 
"did  our  exemplary  rural  friends  tell  you  how  they 
sell  out  their  paupers  to  the  lowest  bidder,  and  get 
them  boarded  sometimes  as  low  as  a  dollar  and  a 
quarter  a  week  ?  " 

"  Yes,  young  Mr.  Camp  told  me  of  that.  He 
seemed  to  think  it  was  terrible." 

"  Did  lie  ?  Well,  I'm  glad  to  hear  that  of  young 
Mr.  Camp.  From  all  that  I've  been  told  before,  he 
seems  to  reserve  his  conscience  for  the  use  of  capi 
talists.  What  does  he  propose  to  do  about  it  ?  " 

"  He  seems  to  think  the  state  ought  to  find  work 
for  them." 

"  Oh,  paternalism  !     Well,  I  guess  the  state  wont." 


198  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

"  That  was  his  opinion,  too." 

"  It  seems  a  hard  fate,"  said  the  minister,  "  that 
the  only  provision  the  law  makes  for  people  who  are 
worn  out  by  sickness  or  a  life  of  work  should  be 
something  that  assorts  them  with  idiots  and  lunatics, 
and  brings  such  shame  upon  them  that  it  is  almost  as 
terrible  as  death." 

"  It  is  the  only  way  to  encourage  independence  and 
individuality,"  said  the  professor.  "  Of  course,  it  has 
its  dark  side.  But  anything  else  would  be  sentimen 
tal  and  unbusinesslike,  and  in  fact,  un-American." 

"  I  am  not  so  sure  that  it  would  be  un-Christian," 
the  minister  timidly  ventured,  in  the  face  of  such  an 
authority  on  political  economy. 

"Oh,  as  to  that,  I  must  leave  the  question  to  the 
reverend  clergy,"  said  the  professor. 

A  very  unpleasant  little  silence  followed.  It  was 
broken  by  the  lawyer,  who  put  his  feet  together,  and 
after  a  glance  down  at  them,  began  to  say,  "  I  was 
very  much  interested  this  afternoon  by  a  conversation 
I  had  with  some  of  the  young  fellows  in  the  hotel. 
You  know  most  of  them  are  graduates,  and  they  are 
taking  a  sort  of  supernumerary  vacation  this  summer, 
before  they  plunge  into  the  battle  of  life  in  the  autumn. 


A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA        199 

They  were  talking  of  some  other  fellows,  classmates 
of  theirs,  who  were  not  so  lucky,  but  had  been  ob 
liged  to  begin  the  fight  at  once.  It  seems  that  our 
fellows  here  arc  all  going  in  for  some  sort  of  profes 
sion  :  medicine,  or  law,  or  engineering,  or  teaching,  or 
the  church,  and  they  were  commiserating  those  other 
fellows  not  only  because  they  were  not  having  the 
supernumerary  vacation,  but  because  they  were  going 
into  business.  That  struck  me  as  rather  odd,  and  I 
tried  to  find  out  what  it  meant,  and  as  nearly  as  I 
could  find  out,  it  meant  that  most  college  graduates 
would  not  go  into  business  if  they  could  help  it. 
They  seemed  to  feel  a  sort  of  incongruity  between 
their  education  and  the  business  life.  They  pitied 
the  fellows  that  had  to  go  in  for  it,  and  apparently 
the  fellows  that  had  to  go  in  for  it  pitied  themselves, 
for  the  talk  seemed  to  have  begun  about  a  letter  that 
one  of  the  chaps  here  had  got  from  poor  Jack  or  Jim 
somebody,  who  had  been  obliged  to  go  into  his 
father's  business,  and  was  groaning  over  it.  The 
fellows  who  were  going  to  study  professions  were 
hugging  themselves  at  the  contrast  between  their  fate 
and  his,  and  were  making  remarks  about  business 
that  were  to  say  the  least  unbusinesslike.  A  few 


200  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

years  ago  we  should  have  made  a  summary  disposi 
tion  of  the  matter,  and  I  believe  some  of  the  newspa 
pers  still  are  in  doubt  about  the  value  of  a  college 
education  to  men  who  have  got  to  make  their  way. 
What  do  you  think  ?  " 

The  lawyer  addressed  his  question  to  the  manufac 
turer,  who  answered  with  a  comfortable  satisfaction, 
that  he  did  not  think  those  young  men  if  they  went 
into  business  would  find  that  they  knew  too  much. 

"  But  they  pointed  out,"  said  the  lawyer,  "  that 
the  great  American  fortunes  had  been  made  by  men 
who  had  never  had  their  educational  advantages,  and 
they  seemed  to  think  that  what  we  call  the  education 
of  a  gentleman  was  a  little  too  good  for  money-mak 
ing  purposes." 

"Well,"  said  the  other,  "they  can  console  them 
selves  with  the  reflection  that  going  into  business 
isn't  necessarily  making  money;  it  isn't  necessarily 
making  a  living,  even." 

"  Some  o'f  them  seem  to  have  caught  on  to  that 
fact ;  and  they  pitied  Jack  or  Jim  partly  because  the 
chances  were  so  much  against  him.  But  they  pitied 
him  mostly  because  in  the  life  before  him  he  would 
have  no  use  for  his  academic  training,  and  he  had 


A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA.       201 

better  not  gone  to  college  at  all.  They  said  lie  would 
be  none  the  better  for  it,  and  would  always  be  miser 
able  when  he  looked  back  to  it." 

The  manufacturer  did  not  reply,  and  the  professor, 
after  a  preliminary  hemming,  held  his  peace.  It  was 
the  banker  who  took  the  word.  "  Well,  so  far  as 
business  is  concerned,  they  were  right.  It  is  no  use 
to  pretend  that  there  is  any  relation  between  business 
and  the  higher  education.  There  is  no  business  man 
who  will  pretend  that  there  is  not  often  an  actual  in 
compatibility,  if  he  is  honest.  I  know  that  when  we 
get  together  at  a  commercial  or  financial  dinner,  we 
talk  as  if  great  merchants  and  great  financiers  were 
beneficent  geniuses,  who  evoked  the  prosperity  of 
mankind  by  their  schemes  from  the  conditions  that 
would  otherwise  have  remained  barren.  Well,  very 
likely  they  are,  but  we  must  all  confess  that  they  do 
not  know  it  at  the  time.  What  they  arc  consciously 
looking  out  for  then  is  the  main  chance.  If  general 
prosperity  follows,  all  well  and  good  ;  they  are  willing 
to  be  given  the  credit  for  it.  But,  as  I  said,  with  bus 
iness  as  business,  the  '  education  of  a  gentleman  '  has 
nothing  to  do.  That  education  is  always  putting  the 
old  Ciceronian  question  :  whether  the  fellow  arriving 


202  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

at  a  starving  city  with  a  cargo  of  grain  is  bound  to 
tell  the  people  before  he  squeezes  them,  that  there  arc 
half  a  dozen  other  fellows  with  grain  just  below  the 
horizon.  As  a  gentleman  he  would  have  to  tell  them, 
because  he  could  not  take  advantage  of  their  necess 
ities  ;  but  as  a  business  man,  he  would  think  it  bad 
business  to  tell  them,  or  no  business  at  all.  The 
principle  goes  all  through ;  I  say,  business  is  business; 
and  I  am  not  going  to  pretend  that  business  will  ever 
be  anything  else.  In  our  business  -battles,  we  don't 
take  off  our  hats  to  the  other  side,  and  say,  '  Gentle 
men  of  the  French  Guard,  have  the  goodness  to  fire.  ' 
That  may  be  war,  but  it  is  not  business.  We  seize 
all  the  advantages  we  can  ;  very  few  of  us  would  act 
ually  deceive ;  but  if  a  fellow  believes  a  thing,  and  we 
know  he  is  wrong,  we  do  not  usually  take  the  trouble 
to  set  him  right,  if  we  are  going  to  lose  anything  by 
undeceiving  him.  That  would  not  be  business.  I 
suppose  you  think  that  is  dreadful  ? "  He  turned 
smilingly  to  the  minister. 

"  I  wish — I  wish,"  said  the  minister,  gently,  "  it 
could  be  otherwise." 

"Well,  I  wish  -so,  too,"  returned  the  ban 
ker.  "  But  it  isn't.  Am  I  right  or  am  I  wrong  ?  " 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  203 

lie  demanded    of    the    manufacturer,    who    laughed. 

"  I  am  not  conducting  this  discussion.  I  will  not 
deprive  you  of  the  floor." 

"  What  you  say,"  I  ventured  to  put  in,  "  reminds 
me  of  the  experience  of  a  friend  of  mine,  a  brother 
novelist.  He  wrote  a  story  where  the  failure  of  a 
business  man  turned  on  a  point  just  like  that  you  have 
instanced.  The  man  could  have  retrieved  himself  if 
he  had  let  some  people  believe  that  what  was  so  was 
not  so,  but  his  conscience  stepped  in  and  obliged  him 
to  own  the  truth.  There  was  a  good  deal  of  talk 
about  the  case,  I  suppose  because  it  was  not  in  real 
life,  and  my  friend  heard  divers  criticisms.  He  heard 
of  a  group  of  ministers  who  blamed  him  for  exalting 
a  case  of  common  honesty,  as  if  it  were  something 
extraordinary;  and  he  heard  .of  some  business  men 
who  talked  it  over,  and  said  he  had  worked  the  case 
up  splendidly,  but  he  was  all  wrong  in  the  outcome  ; 
the  fellow  would  never  have  told  the  other  fellows. 
They  said  it  would  not  have  been  business." 

We  all  laughed  except  the  minister  and  the  Altru- 
rian,  the  manufacturer  said,  "  Twenty-five  years  hence, 
the  fellow  who  is  going  into  business,  may  pity  the 
fellows  who  are  pitying  him  for  his  hard  fate  now." 


204  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

"Very  possibly,  but  not  necessarily,"  said  the 
banker.  "  Of  course,  the  business  man  is  on  top,  as 
far  as  money  goes ;  he  is  the  fellow  who  makes  the 
big  fortunes ;  the  millionaire  lawyers,  and  doctors, 
and  ministers  are  exceptional.  But  his  risks  are  tre 
mendous.  Ninety-five  times  out  of  a  hundred  he 
fails.  To  be  sure,  he  picks  up  and  goes  on,  but  he 
seldom  gets  there,  after  all." 

"  Then  in  your  system,"  said  the  Altrurian,  "  the 
great  majority  of  those  who  go  into  what  you  call  the 
battle  of  life,  are  defeated  ?  " 

"  The  killed,  wounded  and  missing  sum  up  a  fright 
ful  total,"  the  banker  admitted.  "  But  whatever  the 
end  is,  there  is  a  great  deal  of  prosperity  on  the  way. 
The  statistics  are  correct,  but  they  do  not  tell  the 
whole  truth.  It  is  not  so  bad  as  it  seems.  Still, 
simply  looking  at  the  material  chances,  I  don't  blame 
those  young  fellows  for  not  wanting  to  go  into  busi 
ness.  And  when  you  come  to  other  considerations ! 
We  used  to  cut  the  knot  of  the  difficulty  pretty  sharp 
ly  ;  we  said  a  college  education  was  wrong  ;  or,  the  hot 
and  hot  American^  preadeaglers  did.  Business  is  the 
national  ideal,  and  the  successful  business  man  is  the 
American  type.  It  is  a  business  man's  country." 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  205 

"Then,  if  I  understand  you,"  said  the  Altrurian, 
"  and  I  am  very  anxious  to  have  a  clear  understanding 
of  the  matter,  the  effect  of  the  university  with  you  is 
to  unfit  a  youth  for  business  life.1' 

"  Oh,  no.  It  may  give  him  great  advantages  in  it, 
and  that  is  the  theory  and  expectation  of  most  fathers 
who  send  their  sons  to  the  university.  But,  undoubt 
edly,  the  effect  is  to  render  business-life  distasteful. 
The  university  nurtures  all  sorts  of  lofty  ideals,  which 
business  has  no  use  for." 

"  Then  the  effect  is  undemocratic  ?  " 

"  Xo,  it  is  simply  unbusinesslike.  The  boy  is  a 
better  democrat  when  he  leaves  college,  than  lie  will 
be  later,  if  he  goes  into  business.  The  university  has 
taught  him  and  equipped  him  to  use  his  own  gifts 
and  powers  for  his  advancement,  but  the  first  lesson 
of  business  and  the  last,  is  to  use  other  men's  gifts 
and  powers.  If  he  looks  about  him  at  all,  he  sees 
that  no  man  gets  rich  simply  by  his  own  labor,  no 
matter  how  mighty  a  genius  he  is,  and  that  if  you 
want  to  get  rich,  you  must  make  other  men  work  for 
\  you,  and  pay  you  for  the  priy^c^e  of  doing  so. 
Isn't  that  true  ?  " 

The  banker  turned  to  the  manufacturer  with  this 


200        A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA 

question,  and  the  other  said,  "  The  theory  is,  that  we 
give  people  work,"  and  they  both  laughed. 

The  minister  said,  "  I  believe  that  in  Altruria,  no 
man  works  for  the  profit  of  another? " 

"  No  ;  each  works  for  the  profit  of  all,"  replied  the 
Altrurian. 

"  Well,"  said  the  banker,  "  you  seem  to  have  made 
it  go.  Nobody  can  deny  that.  But  we  couldn't 
make  it  go  here." 

u  Why  ?  I  am  very  curious  to  know  why  our  sys 
tem  seems  so  impossible  to  you  ! " 

"Well,  it  is  contrary  to  the  American  spirit.  It  is 
alien  to  our  love  of  individuality." 

"  But  we  prize  individuality ;  too,  and  we  think  we 
secure  it  under  our  system.  Under  yours,  it  seems 
to  me  that  while  the  individuality  of  the  man  who 
makes  other  men  work  for  him  is  safe,  except  from 
itself,  the  individuality  of  the  workers  " — 

"  Well,  that  is  their  lookout.  We  have  found  that 
upon  the  whole,  it  is  best  to  let  every  man  look  out 
for  himself.  I  know  that,  in  a  certain  light,  the  re 
sult  has  an  ugly  aspect ;  but,  nevertheless,  in  spite  of 
all,  the  country  is  enormously  prosperous.  The  pur 
suit  of  happiness,  which  is  one  of  the  inalienable 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  207 

rights  secured  to  us  by  the  Declaration  is,  and  always 
has  been,  a  dream  ;  but  the  pursuit  of  the  dollar  yields 
tangible  proceeds,  and  we  get  a  good  deal  of  excite 
ment  out  of  it,  as  it  goes  on.  You  can't  deny  that 
we  are  the  richest  nation  in  the  world.  Do  you  call 
Altruria  a  rich  country  ?  " 

I  could  not  quite  make  out  whether  the  banker  was 
serious  or  not  in  all  this  talk  ;  sometimes  I  suspected 
him  of  a  line  mockery,  but  the  Altrurian  took  him 
upon  the  surface  of  his  words. 

"  I  hardly  know  whether  it  is  or  not.  The  question 
of  wealth  docs  not  enter  into  our  scheme.  I  can  say 
that  we  all  have  enough,  and  that  no  one  is  even  in 
the  fear  of  want." 

"  Yes,  that  is  very  well.  But  we  should  think  it 
was  paying  too  much  for  it,  if  we  had  to  give  up  the 
hope  of  ever  having  more  than  we  wanted,"  and  at 
this  point  the  banker  uttered  his  jolly  laugh,  and  I 
perceived  that  he  had  been  trying  to  draw  the  Altru 
rian  out,  and  practice  upon  his  patriotism.  It  was  a 
great  relief  to  find  that  he  had  been  joking,  in  so  much 
that  seemed  a  dead  give-away  of  our  economical  posi 
tion.  "  In  Altruria,"  he  asked,  "  who  is  your  ideal 

great  man  ?     I  don't  mean  personally,  but  abstractly." 
14 


208  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

The  Altrurian  thought  a  moment.  "  With  us,  there 
is  so  little  ambition  for  distinction,  as  you  understand 
it,  that  your  question  is  hard  to  answer.  But  I 
should  say,  speaking  largely,  that  it  was  some  man 
who  had  been  able  for  the  time  being,  to  give  the 
greatest  happiness  to  the  greatest  number — some  art 
ist,  or  poet,  or  inventor,  or  physician." 

I  was  somewhat  surprised  to  have  the  banker  take 
this  preposterous  statement  seriously,  respectfully. 
"Well,  that  is  quite  conceivable  with  your  system. 
What  should  you  say,"  he  demanded  of  the  rest  of 
us,  generally,  "  was  our  ideal  of  greatness?" 

No  one  replied  at  once,  or  at  all,  till  the  manufac 
turer  said, "  We  will  let  you  continue  to  run  it." 

"Well,  it  is  a  very  curious  inquiry,  and  I  have 
thought  it  over  a  good  deal.  I  should  say  that  within 
a  generation  our  ideal  had  changed  twice.  Before 
the  war,  and  during  all  the  time  from  the  revolution 
onward,  it  was  undoubtedly  the  great  politician,  the 
publicist,  the  statesman.  As  we  grew  older  and  be 
gan  to  have  an  intellectual  life  of  our  own,  I  think  the 
literary  fellows  had  a  pretty  good  share  of  the  honors 
that  were  going ;  that  is,  such  a  man  as  Longfellow 
was  popularly  considered  a  type  of  greatness.  When 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  209 

the  war  came,  it  brought  the  sc  Idior  to  the  front,  and 
there  was  a  period  of  ten  or  fifteen  years  when  he 
denominated  the  national  imagination.  That  period 
passed,  and  the  great  era  of  material  prosperity  set 
in.  The  big  fortunes  began  to  tower  up,  and  heroes 
of  another  sort  began  to  appeal  to  our  admiration.  I 
don't  think  there  is  any  doubt  but  the  millionaire  is 
now  the  American  ideal.  It  isn't  very  pleasant  to 
think  so,  even  for  people  who  have  got  on,  but  it  can't 
very  hopefully  be  denied.  It  is  the  man  with  the 
most  money  who  now  takes  the  prize  in  our  national 
cake-walk." 

The  Altrurian  turned  curiously  toward  me,  and  I 
did  my  best  to  tell  him  what  a  cake-walk  was.  When 
I  had  finished,  the  banker  resumed,  only  to  say,  as 
he  rose  from  his  chair  to  bid  us  good-night,  "  In  any 
average  assembly  of  Americans,  the  greatest  million 
aire  would  take  the  eyes  of  all  from  the  greatest 
statesman,  the  greatest  poet,  or  the  greatest  soldier, 
we  ever  had.  That,"  he  added  to  the  Altrurian, 
"  will  account  to  you  for  many  things,  as  you  travel 
through  our  country." 


IX. 

THE  next  time  the  members  of  our  little  group  came 
together,  the  manufacturer  began  at  once  upon  the 
banker : 

"  I  should  think  that  our  friend,  the  professor, 
here,  would  hardly  like  that  notion  of  yours,  that 
business,  as  business,  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  edu 
cation  of  a  gentleman.  If  this  is  a  business  man's 
country,  and  if  the  professor  has  nothing  in  stock  but 
the  sort  of  education  that  business  has  no  use  for,  I 
should  suppose  that  he  would  want  to  go  into  some 
other  line." 

The  banker  mutely  referred  the  matter  to  the  pro 
fessor,  who  said,  with  that  cold  grin  of  his  which  I 
hated  : 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  211 

"  Perhaps  we  shall  wait  for  business  to  purge  and 
live  cleanly.  Then  it  will  have  some  use  for  the  edu 
cation  of  a  gentleman." 

"  I  sec,"  said  the  banker,  "  that  I  have  touched  the 
quick  in  botli  of  you,  when  I  hadn't  the  least  notion 
of  doing  so.  But  I  shouldn't,  really,  like  to  prophesy 
which  will  adapt  itself  to  the  other :  education  or  bus 
iness.  Let  us  hope  there  will  be  mutual  concessions. 
There  are  some  pessimists  who  say  that  business 
methods,  especially  on  the  large  scale  of  the  trusts 
and  combinations,  have  grown  worse,  instead  of 
better;  but  this  may  be  merely  what  is  called  a 
'transition  state.'  Hamlet  must  be  cruel  to  be  kind; 
the  darkest  hour  comes  before  dawn :  and  so  on. 
Perhaps  when  business  gets  the  whole  affair  of  life 
into  its  hands,  and  runs  the  republic,  as  its  enemies 
now  accuse  it  of  doing,  the  process  of  purging  and 
living  cleanly  will  begin.  I  have  known  lots  of  fel 
lows  who  started  in  life  rather  scampishly  ;  but  when 
they  felt  secure  of  themselves,  and  believed  that  they 
could  afford  to  be  honest,  they  became  so.  There's 
no  reason  why  the  same  thing  shouldn't  happen  on  a 
large  scale.  We  must  never  forget  that  we  are  still 
a  very  novel  experiment,  though  we  have  matured  so 


'T   Ji  fumu   r^ 

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214  A    TRAVELER    FROM    >  LTRURIA. 

of  the  community,  as  if  it  were  the  fountain  of  wis 
dom,  probity  and  equity.  Suppose  there  were  some 
question  of  vital  interest — I  won't  say  financial,  but 
political,  or  moral,  or  social — on  which  it  was  nec 
essary  to  rouse  public  opinion ;  what  would  be  the 
first  thing  to  do  ?  To  call  a  meeting,  over  the  signa 
tures  of  the  leading  business  men  ;  because  no  other 
names  appeal  with  such  force  to  the  public.  You 
might  get  up  a  call  signed  by  all  the  novelists,  artists, 
ministers,  lawyers  and  doctors  in  the  state,  and  it 
would  not  have  a  tithe  of  the  effect,  with  the  people 
at  large,  that  a  call  signed  by  a  few  leading  merchants, 
bank  presidents,  railroad  men  and  trust  officers,  would 
have.  What  is  the  reason  ?  It  seems  strange  that  I 
should  be  asking  you  to  defend  yourself  against  your 
self." 

"Not  at  all,  my  dear  fellow,  not  at  all  !"  the  ban 
ker  replied,  with  his  caressing  bonhomie.      "  Though 
I  will  confess,   to  begin  with,  that  I  do  not  expect  to 
answer  your  question  to  your  entire  satisfaction.      I 
can  only  do  my  best — on  the  installment  plan." 
He  turned  to  the  Altrurian,  and  then  went  on  : 
"  As  I  said  the  other  night,  this  is  a  business  man's 
country.     We  are  a  purely  commercial  people  ;  money 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  215 

is  absolutely  to  the  fore  ;  and  business,  which  is  the 
means  of  getting  the  most  money,  is  the  American 
ideal.  If  you  like,  you  may  call  it  the  American 
fetish  ;  I  don't  mind  calling  it  so  myself.  The  fact 
that  business  is  our  ideal,  or  our  fetish,  will  account 
for  the  popular  faith  in  business  men,  who  form  its 
priesthood, Jt§Jiicrarcliy.  I  don't  know,  myself,  any 
other  reason  for  regarding  business  men  as  solider 
than  novelists,  or  artists,  or  ministers,  not  to  mention 
lawyers  and  doctors.  They  are  supposed  to  have  long 
heads ;  but  it  appears  that  ninety-five  times  out  of  a 
hundred  they  haven't.  They  are  supposed  to  be  very 
reliable ;  but  it  is  almost  invariably  a  business  man,  of 
some  sort,  who  gets  out  to  Canada  while  the  state 
examiner  is  balancing  his  books,  and  it  is  usually  the 
longest-headed  business  men  who  get  plundered  by 
him.  No,  it  is  simply  because  business  is  our  national 
ideal,  that  the  business  man  is  honored  above  all 
other  men  among  us.  In  the  aristocratic  countries 
they  forward  a  public  object  under  the  patronage  of 
the  nobility  and  gentry  ;  in  a  plutocratic  country  they 
get  the  business  men  to  endorse  it.  I  suppose  that 
the  average  American  citizen  feels  that  they  wouldn't 
endorse  a  thing  unless  it  was  safe  ;  and  the  average 


216  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

American  citizen  likes  to  be  safe — lie  is  cautious.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  business  men  are  always  taking 
risks,  and  business  is  a  game  of  chance,  in  a  certain 
degree.  Have  I  made  myself  intelligible  ? " 

"  Entirely  so,"  said  the  Altrurian ;  and  lie  seemed 
so  thoroughly  well  satisfied,  that  he  forebore  asking 
any  question  farther. 

No  one  else  spoke.  The  banker  lighted  'a  cigar, 
and  resumed  at  the  point  where  he  left  off  when  I 
ventured  to  enter  upon  the  defense  of  his  class  with 
him.  I  must  say  that  he  had  not  convinced  me  at  all. 
At  that  moment,  I  would  rather  have  trusted  him,  in 
any  serious  matter  of  practical  concern,  than  all  the 
novelists  I  ever  heard  of.  But  I  thought  I  would  leave 
the  word  to  him,  without  further  attempt  to  reinstate 
him  in  his  self-esteem.  In  fact,  he  seemed  to  be  get 
ting  along  very  well  without  it ;  or  else  he  was  feeling 
that  mysterious  control  from  the  Altrurian  which  I 
had  already  suspected  him  of  using.  Voluntarily  or 
involuntarily,  the  banker  proceeded  with  his  contribu 
tion  to  the  Altrurian's  stock  of  knowledge  concerning 
our  civilization  : 

"  I  don't  believe,  however,  that  the  higher  educa 
tion  is  any  more  of  a  failure,  as  a  provision  for  a 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  21 7 

business  career,  than  the  lower  education  is  for  the 
life  of  labor.  I  suppose  that  the  hypercritical  observer 
might  say  that  in  a  wholly  commercial  civilization, 
like  ours,  the  business  man  really  needed  nothing 
beyond  the  three  R's,  and  the  workingman  needed  no 
R  at  all.  As  a  practical  affair,  there  is  a  good  deal  to 
be  said  in  favor  of  that  view.  The  higher  education 

-w.    . 

is  part  of  *^o  social  ideal  which  we  have  derived 
from  the" past,  from  Europe.  TtTis  part  of  the  provi 
sion  for  the  Ttfe"~of  leisure,  the  life  of  the  aristocrat, 
which  nobody  of  our  generation  leads,  except  women. 
Our  women  really  have  some  use  for  the  education  of 
a  gentleman,  but  our  men  have  none.  How  will 
that  do  for  a  generalization  ? "  the  banker  asked  of 
me. 

"  Oh,"  I  admitted,  with  a  laugh,  "  it  is  a  good  deal 
like  one  of  my  own.  I  have  always  been  struck  with 
that  phase  of  our  civilization." 

"  Well,  then,"  the  banker  resumed,  "  take  the  lower 
education.  This  is  part  of  the  civic  ideal  which,  I 
suppose,  I  may  say  we  evolved  from  the  depths  of  our 
inner  consciousness  of  what  an  American  citizen 
ought  to  be.  It  includes  instruction  in  all  the  R's, 
and  in  several  other  letters  of  the  alphabet.  It  is  given 


218       A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA. 

free  by  the  state,  and  no  one  can  deny  that  it  is 
thoroughly  socialistic  in  conception  and  application." 

"  Distinctly  so,"  said  the  professor.  "  Now  that 
the  text-books  are  furnished  by  the  state,  we  have 
only  to  go  a  step  farther,  and  provide  a  good,  hot 
lunch  for  the  children  every  day,  as  they  do  in  Paris." 

"  Well,"  the  banker  returned,  "  I  don't  know  that  I 
should  have  much  to  say  against  that.  It  seems  as 
reasonable  as  anything  in  the  system  of  education 
which  we  force  upon  the  working-classes.  They 
know,  perfectly  well,  whether  we  do  or  not,  that  the 
three  R's  will  not  make  their  children  better  me 
chanics  or  laborers,  and  that,  if  the  fight  for  a  mere 
living  is  to  go  on,  from  generation  to  generation,  they 
will  have  no  leisure  to  apply  the  little  learning  they 
get  in  the  public  schools  for  their  personal  culture.  In 
the  meantime,  we  deprive  the  parents  of  their  chil 
dren's  labor,  in  order  that  they  may  be  better  citizens 
for  their  schooling,  as  we  imagine ;  I  don't  know 
whether  they  are  or  not.  We  offer  them  no  sort  of 
compensation  for  their  time,  and  I  think  we  ought  to 
feel  obliged  to  them  for  not  wanting  wages  for  their 
children  while  we  are  teaching  them  to  be  better  cit 
izens." 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  219 

"  You  know,"  said  the  professor,  "  that  has  been 
suggested  by  some  of  their  leaders." 

"  No,  really  ?  Well,  that  is  too  good !  "  The  banker 
threw  back  his  head,  and  roared,  and  we  all  laughed 
with  him.  When  we  had  sobered  down  again,  he 
said  :  "  I  suppose  that  when  a  working  man  makes  all 
the  use  he  can  of  his  lower  education,  he  becomes  a 
business  man,  and  then  he  doesn't  need  the  higher. 
Professor,  you  seem  to  be  left  out  in  the  cold,  by  our 
system,  whichever  way  you  take  it." 

"  Oh,"  said  the  professor,  "  the  law  of  supply  and 
demand  works  both  ways ;  it  creates  the  demand,  if 
the  supply  comes  first ;  and  if  we  keep  on  giving  the 
sons  of  business  men  the  education  of  a  gentleman, 
we  may  yet  make  them  feel  the  need  of  it.  We  shall 
evolve  a  new  sort  of  business  man." 

"  The  "sort  that  can't  make  money,  or  wouldn't 
exactly  like  to,  on  some  terms?"  asked  the  banker. 
"  Well,  perhaps  we  shall  work  out  our  democratic  sal 
vation  in  that  way.  When  "you  have  educated  your 
new  business  man  to  the  point  where  he  can't  consent 
to  get  rich  at  the  obvious  cost  of  others,  you've  got 
him  on  the  way  back  to  work  with  his  hands.  He  will 
sink  into  the  ranks  of  labor,  and  give  the  fellow  with 


220  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

tho  lower  education  a  chance.  I've  no  doubt  he'll 
take  it.  I  don't  know  but  you're  right,  professor." 

The  lawyer  had  not  spoken,  as  yet.  Now  he  said  : 
"  Then,  it  is  education,  after  all,  that  is  to  bridge  the 
chasm  between  the  classes  and  the  masses,  though  it 
seems  destined  to  go  a  long  way  around  about  it. 
There  was  a  time,  I  believe,  when  we  expected 
religion  to  do  that." 

"  Well,  it  may  still  be  doing  it,  for  all  I  know," 
said  the  banker.  "  What  do  you  say  ? "  he  asked, 
turning  to  the  minister.  "You  ought  to  be  able  to 
give  us  some  statistics  on  the  subject  with  that  large 
congregation  of  yours.  You  preach  to  more  people 
than  any  other  pulpit  in  your  city." 

The  banker  named  one  of  the  principal  cities  in 
the  east,  and  the  minister  answered,  with  modest 
pride :  "I  am  not  sure  of  that ;  but  our  Society  is 
certainly  a  very  large  one." 

"  Well,  and  how  many  of  the  lower  classes  are 
there  in  it — people  who  work  for  their  living  with 
their  hands  ?  " 

The  minister  stirred  uneasily  in  his  chair,  and  at 
last  he  said,  with  evident  unhappiness  :  "  They — 1 
suppose — they  have  their  own  churches.  I  have  never 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  221 

thought  that  such  a  separation  of  the  classes  was 
right ;  and  I  have  had  some  of  the  very  best  people — 
socially  and  financially — with  me  in  the  wish  that 
there  might  be  more  brothcrliness  between  the  rich 
and  poor  among  us.  But  as  yet" — 

He  stopped ;  the  banker  pursued  :    "Do  you  mean 
there  are  no  working-people  in  your  congregation  ? " 

"  I  cannot  think  of  any,"  returned  the  minister  so 
miserably  that  the  banker  forbore  to  press  the  point. 

The  lawyer  broke  the  awkward  pause  which  fol 
lowed  :  "  I  have  heard  it  asserted  that  there  is  no 
country  in  the  world,  where  the  separation  of  the 
classes  is  so  absolute  as  in  ours.  In  fact,  I  once 
heard  a  Russian  revolutionist,  who  had  lived  in  exile 
all  over  Europe,  say  that  he  had  never  seen  anywhere 
such  a  want  of  kindness  or  sympathy  between  rich 
and  poor,  as  he  had  observed  in  America.  I  doubted 
whether  he  was  right.  But  he  believed  that,  if  it 
ever  came  to  the  industrial  revolution  with  us,  the 
fight  would  be  more  uncompromising  than  any  such 
fight  that  the  world  had  ever  seen.  There  was  no  re 
spect  from  low  to  high,  he  said,  and  no  consideration 
from  high  to  low,  .as  there  were  in  countries  with  tra 
ditions  and  old  associations." 


222  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

"  Well,"  said  the  banker,  "  there  may  be  something 
in  that.  Certainly,  so  far  as  the  two  forces  have 
come  into  conflict  here,  there  has  been  no  disposition, 
on  either  side,  to  'make  war  with  the  water  of  roses.' 
It's  astonishing,  in  fact,  to  see  how  ruthless  the  fel 
lows  who  have  just  got  up  are  towards  the  fellows 
who  are  still  down.  And  the  best  of  us  have  been  up 
only  a  generation  or  two — and  the  fellows  who  are 
still  down  know  it." 

"  And  what  do  you  think  would  be  the  outcome  of 
such  a  conflict  ?  "  I  asked,  with  my  soul  divided  be 
tween  fear  of  it,  and  the  .perception  of  its  excellence 
as  material.  My  fancy  vividly  sketched  the  outline 
of  a  story  which  should  forecast  the  struggle  and  its 
event,  somewhat  on  the  plan  of  the  Battle  of  Dorking. 

"  We  should  beat,"  said  the  banker,  breaking  his 
cigar-ash  off  with  his  little  finger ;  and  I  instantly  cast 
him,  with  his  ironic  calm,  for  the  part  of  a  great  pa 
trician  leader,  in  my  Fall  of  the  Republic.  Of  course, 
I  disguised  him  somewhat,  and  travestied  his  worldly 
bonhomie  with  the  bluff  sang-froid  of  the  soldier  ; 
these  things  are  easily  done. 

"  What  makes  you  think  we  should  beat?"  asked 
the  manufacturer,  with  a  certain  curiosity. 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  223 

"  Well,  all  the  good  jingo  reasons :  we  have  got  the 
materials  for  beating.  Those  fellows  throw  away 
their  strength  whenever  they  begin  to  fight,  and 
they've  been  so  badly  generated,  up  to  the  present 
time,  that  they  have  wanted  to  fight  at  the  outset  of 
every  quarrel.  They  have  been  beaten  in  every  quar 
rel,  but  still  they  always  want  to  begin  by  fighting. 
That  is  all  right.  When  they  have  learned  enough 
to  begin  by  voting,  then  we  shall  have  to  look  out. 
But  if  they  keep  on  fighting,  and  always  putting 
themselves  in  the  wrong  and  getting  the  worst  of  it, 
perhaps  we  can  fix  the  voting  so  we  needn't  be  any 
more  afraid  of  that  than  we  arc  of  the  fighting.  It's 
astonishing  how  shortsighted  they  arc.  They  have 
no  conception  of  any  cure  for  their  grievances,  except 
more  wages  and  fewer  hours." 

"But,"  I  asked,  "do  you  really  think  they  have 
any  just  grievances  ?  " 

"  Of  course  not,  as  a  business  man,"  said  the  ban 
ker.  "  If  I  were  a  workingman,  I  should  probably 
think  differently.  But  we  will  suppose  for  the  sake 
of  argument,  that  their  day  is  too  long  and  their  pay 
is  too  short.  How  do  they  go  about  to  better  them 
selves?  They  strike.  Well,  a  strike  is  a  fight,  and 
15 


224  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

in  a  fight,  now-a-days,  it  is  always  skill  and  money 
that  win.  The  workingmen  can't  stop  till  they  have 
put  themselves  outside  of  the  public  sympathy,  which 
the  newspapers  say  is  so  potent  in  their  behalf;  I 
never  saw  that  it  did  them  the  least  good.  They  be 
gin  by  boycotting,  and  breaking  the  heads  of  the  men 
who  want  to  work.  They  destroy  property,  and  they 
interfere  with  business — the  -two  absolutely  sacred 
things  in  the  American  religion.  Then  we  call  out 
the  militia,  and  shoot  a  few  of  them,  and  their  leaders 
declare  the  strike  off.  It  is  perfectly  simple." 

"  But  will  it  be  quite  as  simple,"  I  asked,  reluctant 
in  behalf  of  my  projected  romance,  to  have  the  matter 
so  soon  disposed  of,  "  will  it  be  quite  so  simple  if 
their  leaders  ever  persuade  the  workingmen  to  leave 
the  militia,  as  they  threaten  to  do,  from  time  to  time  ?  " 

"  No,  not  quite  so  simple,"  the  banker  admitted. 
"  Still,  the  fight  would  be  comparatively  simple. 
In  the  first  place,  I  doubt — though  I  won't  be  certain 
about  it — whether  there  are  a  great  many  workingmen 
in  the  militia  now.  I  rather  fancy  it  is  made  up,  for 
the  most  part,  of  clerks  and  small  tradesmen,  and 
book-keepers,  and  such  employees  of  business  as  have 
time  and  money  for  it.  I  may  be  mistaken." 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    AI/TRURIA.  225 

No  one  seemed  able  to  say  whether  he  was  mistaken 
or  not ;  and,  after  waiting  a  moment,  he  proceeded : 
"  I  feel  pretty  sure  that  it  is  so  in  the  city  companies 
and  regiments,  at  any  rate,  and  that  if  every  working- 
man  left  them,  it  would  not  seriously  impair  their 
effectiveness.  But  when  the  workingmcn  have  left 
the  militia,  what  have  they  done  ?  They  have  elim 
inated  the  only  thing  that  disqualifies  it  for  prompt 
and  unsparing  use  against  strikers.  As  long  as  they 
are  in  it,  we  might  have  our  misgivings,  but  if  they 
were  once  out  of  it,  we  should  have  none.  And  what 
would  they  gain  ?  They  would  not  be  allowed  to 
arm  and  organize  as  an  inimical  force.  That  was 
settled  once  for  all,  in  Chicago,  in  the  case  of  the 
International  Groups.  A  .few  squads  of  policemen 
would  break  them  up.  Why,"  the  banker  exclaimed, 
with  his  good-humored  laugh,  "  how  preposterous 
they  arc  when  you  come  to  look  at  it !  They  are  in 
the  majority,  the  immense  majority,  if  you  count  the 
farmers,  and  they  prefer  to  behave  as  if  they  were  the 
hopeless  minority.  They  say  they  want-an  eight-hour 
law,  and  every  now  and  then  they  strike,  and  try  to 
fight  it.  Why  don't  they  vote  it  ?  They  could  make 
it  the  law  in  six  months,  by  such  overwhelming  num- 


226  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

bcrs  that  no  one  would  dare  to  evade  or  defy  it. 
They  can  make  any  law  they  want,  but  they  prefer  to 
break  such  laws  as  we  have.  That  '  alienates  public 
sympathy,'  the  newspapers  say,  but  the  spectacle  of 
their  stupidity  and  helpless  wilfulness  is  so  lamentable 
that  I  could  almost  pity  them.  If  they  chose,  it 
would  take  only  a  few  years  to  transform  our  govern 
ment  into  the  likeness  of  anything  they  wanted.  But 
they  would  rather  not  have  what  they  want,  appar 
ently,  if  they  can  only  keep  themselves  from  getting 
it,  and  they  have  to  work  hard  to  do  that ! " 

"  I  suppose,"  I  said,  "that  they  are  misled  by  the 
un-American  principles  and  methods  of  the  socialists 
among  them." 

"  Why,  no,"  returned  the  banker,  "  I  shouldn't  say 
that.  As  far  as  I  understand  it,  the  socialists  are  the 
only  fellows  among  them  who  propose  to  vote  their 
ideas  into  laws,  and  nothing  can  be  more  American 
than  that.  I  don't  believe  the  socialists  stir  up  the 
strikes,  at  least  among  our  workingmcn,  though  the 
newspapers  convict  them  of  it,  generally  without  try 
ing  them.  .The  socialists  seem  to  accept  the  strikes 
as  the  inevitable  outcome  of  the  situation,  and  they 
make  use  of  them  as  proofs  of  the  industrial  disco n- 


A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA.       227 

tent.  But,  luckily  for  the  status,  our  labor  leaders 
are  not  socialists,  for  your  socialist,  whatever  you 
may  say  against  him,  has  generally  thought  himself 
into  a  socialist.  He  knows  that  until  the  workingmen 
stop  fighting,  and  get  down  to  voting — until  they  con 
sent  to  be  the  majority — there  is  no  hope  for  them. 
I  am  not  talking  of  anarchists,  mind  you,  but  of  so 
cialists,  whose  philosophy  is  more  law,  not  less,  and 
who  look  forward  to  an  order  so  just  that  it  can't  be 
disturbed." 

"  And  what,"  the  minister  faintly  said,  "  do  you 
think  will  be  the  outcome  of  it  all  ? " 

"  We  had  that  question  the  other  night,  didn't  we  ? 
Our  legal  friend,  here,  seemed  to  feel  that  we  might 
rub  along  indefinitely  as  we  are  doing,  or  work  out  an 
Altruria  of  our  own ;  or  go  back  to  the  patriarchial 
stage,  and  own  our  workingmen.  He  seemed  not  to 
have  so  much  faith  in  the  logic  of  events  as  I  have. 
I  doubt  if  it  is  altogether  a  woman's  logic.  Parole 
feminine,  fatt'i  maschi,  and  the  logic  of  events  isn't 
altogether  words  ;  it's  full  of  hard  knocks,  too.  But 
I'm  no  prophet.  I  can't  forecast  the  future  ;  I  prefer 
to  take  it  as  it  comes.  There's  a  little  tract  of  Wil 
liam  Morris's  though — I  forget  just  what  he  calls  it 


228  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

— that  is  full  of  curious  and  interesting  speculation 
on  this  point.  lie  thinks  that  if  we  keep  the  road  we 
are  now  going,  the  last  state  of  labor  will  be  like  its 
first,  and  it  will  be  owned." 

"  Oh,  I  don't  believe  that  will  ever  happen  in  Amer 
ica,"  I  protested. 

"  Why  not  ?  "  asked  the  banker.  "  Practically,  it  is 
owned  already  in  a  vastly  greater  measure  than  we 
recognize.  And  where  Avould  the  great  harm  be  ? 
The  new  slavery  would  not  be  like  the  old.  There 
needn't  be  irresponsible  whipping  and  separation  of 
families,  and  private  buying  and  selling.  The  prole 
tariat  would  probably  be  owned  by  the  state,  as  it 
was  at  one  time  in  Greece ;  or  by  large  corporations, 
which  would  be  much  more  in  keeping  with  the  gen 
ius  of  our  free  institutions:  and  an  enlightened  public 
opinion  would  cast  safeguards  about  it  in  the  form  of 
law  to  guard  it  from  abuse.  But  it  would  be  strictly 
policed,  localized,  and  controlled,  'there  would  prob 
ably  be  less  suffering  than  there  is  now,  when  a  man 
may  be  cowed  into  submission  to  any  terms  through 
the  suffering  of  his  family ;  when  he  may  be  starved 
out  and  turned  out  if  he  is  unruly.  You  may  be  sure 
that  nothing  of  that  kind  would  happen  in  the  new 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  229 

slavery.  We  have  not  had  nineteen  hundred  years  of 
Christianity  for  nothing." 

The  banker  paused,  and  as  the  silence  continued 
he  broke  it  with  a  laugh,  which  was  a  prodigious  re 
lief  to  my  feelings,  and  I  suppose  to  the  feelings  of  all. 
I  perceived  that  he  had  been  joking,  and  I  was  con 
firmed  in  this  when  he  turned  to  the  Altrurian  and 
laid  his  hand  upon  his  shoulder.  "  You  sec,"  he  said, 
"  I'm  a  kind  of  Altrurian  myself.  What  is  the  reason 
why  we  should  not  found  a  new  Altruria  here  on  the 
lines  I've  drawn  ?  Have  you  never  had  philosophers 
— well,  call  them  philanthropists ;  I  don't  mind — of 
my  way  of  thinking  among  you  ? " 

"  Oh,  yes,"  said  the  Altrurian.  "  At  one  time, 
just  before  we  emerged  from  the  competitive  condi 
tions,  there  was  much  serious  question  whether  capital 
should  not  own  labor,  instead  of  labor  owning  capital. 
That  was  many  hundred  years  ago." 

"I  am  proud  to  find  myself  such  an  advanced 
thinker,"  said  the  banker.  "And  how  came  you  to 
decide  that  labor  should  own  capital  ? " 

"  We  voted  it,"  answered  the  Altrurian. 

"  Well,"  said  the  banker,  "  our  fellows  are  still 
fighting  it,  and  getting  beaten." 


230  A     TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

I  found  him  later  in  the  evening,  talking  with  Mrs. 
Makely.  "  My  dear  sir,"  I  said,  "  I  liked  your  frank 
ness  with  my  Altrurian  friend  immensely  ;  and  it 
may  be  well  to  put  the  worst  foot  foremost ;  but  what 
is  the  advantage  of  not  leaving  us  a  leg  to  stand 
upon  ? " 

He  was  not  in  the  least  offended  at  my  boldness, 
as  I  had  feared  he  might  be,  but  he  said  with  that 
jolly  laugh  of  his,  "Capital!  Well,  perhaps  I  have 
worked  my  candor  a  little  too  hard  ;  I  suppose  there 
is  such  a  thing.  But  don't  you  see  that  it  leaves  me 
in  the  best  possible  position  to  carry  the  war  into 
Altruria,  when  we  get  him  to  open  up  about  his  native 
land  ?  " 

"  Ah  !     If  you  can  get  him  to  do  it." 

"Well,  we  were  just  talking  about  that.  Mrs. 
Makely  has  a  plan." 

"  Yes,"  said  the  lady,  turning  an  empty  chair  near 
her  own,  toward  me.  "  Sit  down  and  listen  !  " 


X. 


I  SAT  down,  and  Mrs.  Makely  continued :  "  I  have 
thought  it  all  out,  and  I  want  you  to  confess  that  in 
all  practical  matters  a  woman's  brain  is  better  than  a 
man's.  Mr.  Bullion,  here,  says  it  is,  and  I  want  you 
to  say  so,  too." 

"  Yes,"  the  banker  admitted,  "  when  it  comes  down 
to  business,  a  woman  is  worth  any  two  of  us." 

"  And  we  have  just  been  agreeing,"  I  coincided, 
"  that  the  only  gentlemen  among  us  are  women.  Mrs. 
Makely,  I  admit,  without  further  dispute,  that  the 
most  unworldly  woman  is  wordlier  than  the  worldliest 
man ;  and  that  in  all  practical  matters  we  fade  into 
dreamers  and  doctrinaires  beside  you.  Now,  go  on !" 

But  she  did  not  mean  to  let  me  off  so  easily.     She 


232  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

began  to  brag  herself  up,  as  women  do,  whenever  you 
make  them  the  slightest  concession. 

"Here,  you  men,"  she  said,  "have  been  trying  for 
a  whole  week  to  get  something  out  of  Mr.  Homos 
about  his  country,  and  you  have  left  it  to  a  poor, 
weak  woman,  at  last,  to  think  how  to  manage  it.  I 
do  believe  that  you  get  so  much  interested  in  your 
own  talk,  when  you  are  with  him,  that  you  don't  let 
him  get  in  a  word,  and  that's  the  reason  you  haven't 
found  out  anything  about  Altruria,  yet,  from  him." 

In  view  of  the  manner  in  which  she  had  cut  in  at 
Mrs.  Camp's,  and  stopped  Homos  on  the  very  verge 
of  the  only  full  and  free  confession  he  had  ever  been 
near  making  about  Altruria,  I  thought  this  was  pretty 
cool,  but,  for  fear  of  worse,  I  said  : 

"  You're  quite  right,  Mrs.  Makely.  I'm  sorry  to 
say  that  there  has  been  a  shameful  want  of  self-con 
trol  among  us,  and  that,  if  we  learn  anything  at  all 
from  him,  it  will  be  because  you  have  taught  us  how." 

She  could  not  resist  this  bit  of  taffy.  She  scarcely 
gave  herself  time  to  gulp  it,  before  she  said  : 

"  Oh,  it's  very  well  to  say  that,  now  !  But  where 
would  you  have  been,  if  I  hadn't  set  my  wits  to  work? 
Now,  listen  !  It  just  popped  into  my  mind,  like  an 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  233 

inspiration,  when  I  was  thinking  of  something  alto 
gether  different.  It  flashed  upon  me  in  an  instant :  a 
good  object,  and  a  public  occasion." 

"  Well  ?"  I  said,  finding  this  explosive  and  electri 
cal  inspiration  rather  enigmatical. 

"  Why,  you  know,  the  Union  chapel,  over  in  the 
village,  is  in  a  languishing  condition,  and  the  ladies 
have  been  talking  all  summer  about  doing  something 
for  it,  getting  up  something — a  concert,  or  theatricals, 
or  a  dance,  or  something — and  applying  the  proceeds 
to  repainting  and  papering  the- visible  church  ;  it  needs 
it  dreadfully.  But,  of  coui»e,  those  things  arc  not 
exactly  religious,  don't  you  know;  and  a  fair  is  so 
much  trouble  ;  and  such  a  bore,  when  you  get  the  arti 
cles  ready,  even  ;  and  everybody  feels  swindled  ;  and 
now  people  frown  on  raffles,  so  there  is  no  use  think 
ing  of  them.  AVhat  you  want  is  something  striking. 
"VVe  did  think  of  a  parlor-reading,  or  perhaps  ventril 
oquism  ;  but  the  performers  all  charge  so  much  that 
there  wouldn't  be  anything  left  after  paying  expenses." 

She  seemed  to  expect  some  sort  of  prompting  at 
this  point ;  so  I  said,  "  Well  ?  " 

"  Well,"  she  repeated,  "  that  is  just  where  your 
Mr.  Homos  comes  in." 


234  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

"  Oh  !     How  docs  he  come  in  there  ?  " 

"  Why,  get  him  to  deliver  a  Talk  on  Altruria.  As 
soon  as  he  knows  it's  for  a  good  object,  he  will  be  on 
fire  to  do  it ;  and  they  must  live  so  much  in  common 
there,  that  the  public  occasion  will  be  just  the  thing 
that  will  appeal  to  him." 

It  did  seem  a  good  plan  to  me,  and  I  said  so.  But 
Mrs.  Makcly  was  so  much  in  love  with  it,  that  she 
was  not  satisfied  with  my  modest  recognition. 

"  Good  ?  It's  magnificent !  It's  the  very  thing  ! 
And  I  have  thought  it  out,  down  to  the  last  detail" — 

"  Excuse  me  !  "  I  interrupted.  "  Do  you  think 
there  is  sufficient  general  interest  in  the  subject,  out 
side  of  the  hotel,  to  get  a  full  house  for  him  ?  I 
shouldn't  like  to  see  him  subjected  to  the  mortifica 
tion  of  empty  benches." 

"  What  in  the  world  are  you  thinking  of  ?  Why, 
there  isn't  a  farm-house,  anywhere  within  ten  miles, 
where  they  haven't  heard  of  Mr.  Homos  ;  and  there 
isn't  a  servant  under  this  roof,  or  in  any  of  the  board 
ing-houses,  who  doesn't  know  something  about  Altru 
ria  and  want  to  know  more.  It  seems  that  your 
friend  has  been  much  oftener  with  the  porters  and 
the  stable  boys  than  he  has  been  with  us." 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  235 

I  had  only  too  great  reason  to  fear  so.  In  spite  of 
my  warnings  and  entreaties,  he  had  continued  to 
behave  toward  every  human  being  he  met,  exactly  as 
if  they  were  equals,  lie  apparently  could  not  con 
ceive  of  that  social  difference  which  difference  of 
occupation  creates  among  us.  He  owned  that  he  saw 
it,  and  from  the  talk  of  our  little  group,  he  knew  it 
existed ;  but  when  I  expostulated  with  him  upon  some 
act  in  gross  violation  of  society  usage,  he  only 
answered  that  he  could  not  imagine  that  what  he  saw 

O 

and  knew  could  actually  be.  It  was  quite  impossible 
to  keep  him  from  bowing  with  the  greatest  deference 
to  our  waitress ;  he  shook  hands  with  the  head  waiter 
every  morning  as  well  as  with  me ;  there  was  a  fearful 
story  current  in  the  house,  that  he  had  been  seen  run 
ning  down  one  of  the  corridors  to  relieve  a  chamber 
maid  laden  with  tyo  heavy  waterpails,  which  she  was 
carrying  to  the  rooms  to  fill  up  the  pitchers.  This 
was  probably  not  true,  but  I  myself  saw  him  helping 
in  the  hotel  hayficld  one  afternoon,  shirt-sleeved  like 
any  of  the  hired  men.  lie  said  that  it  was  the  best 
possible  exercise,  and  that  lie  was  ashamed  he  could 
give  no  better  excuse  for  it  than  the  fact  that  without 
something  of  the  kind  he  should  suffer  from  indigcs- 


236  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

tion.  It  was  grotesque,  and  out  of  all  keeping  with  a 
man  of  his  cultivation  and  breeding.  He  was  a  gen 
tleman  and  a  scholar,  there  was  no  denying,  and  yet 
he  did  things  in  contravention  of  good  form  at  every 
opportunity,  and  nothing  I  could  say  had  any  effect 
with  him.  I  was  perplexed  beyond  measure,  the  day 
after  I  had  reproached  him  for  his  labor  in  the  hay- 
field,  to  find  him  in  a  group  of  table-girls,  who  were 
listening  while  the  head  waiter  read  aloud  to  them  in 
the  shade  of  the  house  ;  there  was  a  corner  looking 
toward  the  stables  which  was  given  up  to  them  by 
tacit  consent  of  the  guests  during  a  certain  part  of  the 
afternoon.  I  feigned  not  to  see  him,  but  I  could  not 
forbear  speaking  to  him  about  it  afterwards.  He  took 
it  in  good  part,  but  he  said  he  had  been  rather  disap 
pointed  in  the  kind  of  literature  they  liked,  and  the 
comments  they  made  on  it ;  he  had  expected  that  with 
the  education  they  had  received,  and  with  their  ex 
perience  of  the  seriousness  o^  life,  they  would  prefer 
something  less  trivial.  He  supposed,  however,  that  a 
romantic  love  story,  where  a  poor  American  girl  mar 
ries  an  English  lord,  formed  a  refuge  for  them  from 
the  real  world  which  promised  them  so  little  and.  held 
them  so  cheap.  It  was  quite  useless  for  one  to  try  to 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  237 

make  him  realize  his  behavior  in  consorting  with  ser 
vants  as  a  kind  of  scandal. 

The  worst  of  it  was  that  his  behavior,  as  I  could 
see,  had  already  begun  to  demoralize  the  objects  of 
his  misplaced  politeness.  At  first,  the  servants  stared 
and  resented  it,  as  if  it  were  some  tasteless  joke ;  but 
in  an  incredibly  short  time,  when  they  saw  that  he 
meant  his  courtesy  in  good  faith  they  took  it  as  their 
due.  I  had  always  had  a  good  understanding  with 
the  head  waiter,  and  I  thought  I  could  safely  smile 
witli  him  at  the  queer  conduct  of  my  friend  toward 
himself  and  his  fellow  servants.  To  my  astonishment 
he  said,  "  I  don't  see  why  he  shouldn't  treat  them  as 
if  they  were  ladies  and  gentlemen.  Doesn't  he  treat 
you  and  your  friends  so  ?  " 

It  was  impossible  to  answer  this,  and  I  could  only 
suffer  in  silence,  and  hope  the  Altrurian  would  soon 
go.  I  had  dreaded  the  moment  when  the  landlord 
should  tell  me  that  his  room  was  wanted  ;  now  I  al 
most  desired  it,  but  he  never  did.  On  the  contrary, 
the  Altrurian  was  in  high  favor  with  him.  lie  said 
he  liked  to  see  a  man  make  himself  pleasant  with  ev 
erybody  ;  and  that  he  did  not  believe  he  had  ever  had 
a  guest  in  the  house  who  was  so  popular  all  round. 


238  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

"Of  course,"  Mrs.  Makely  went  on,  "I  don't  criti 
cise  him — with  his  peculiar  traditions.  I  presume  I 
should  be  just  so  myself  if  I  had  been  brought  up  in 
Altruria,  which  thank  goodness,  I  wasn't.  But  Mr. 
Homos  is  a  perfect  dear,  and  all  the  women  in  the 
house  are  in  love  with  him,  from  the  cook's  helpers, 
up  and  down.  No,  the  only  danger  is  that  there 
won't  be  room  in  the  hotel  parlors  for  all  the  people 
that  will  want  to  hear  him,  and  we  shall  have  to  make 
the  admission  something  that  will  be  prohibitive  in 
most  cases.  We  shall  have  to  make  it  a  dollar." 

"  Well,"  I  said,  "  I  think  that  will  settle  the  ques 
tion  as  far  as  the  farming  population  is  concerned. 
It's  twice  as  much  as  they  ever  pay  for  a  reserved 
seat  in  the  circus,  and  four  times  as  much  as  a  simple 
admission.  I'm  afraid,  Mrs.  Makely,  you're  going  to 
be  very  few,  though  fit." 

"  Well,  I've  thought  it  all  over,  and  I'm  going  to 
put  the  tickets  at  one  dollar." 

"  Very  good.     Have  you  caught  your  hare  ?  " 

"  No,  I  haven't,  yet.  And  I  want  you  to  help  me 
catch  him.  What  do  you  think  is  the  best  way  to  go 
about  it  ?" 

The  banker  said  he  would  leave  us  to  the  discussion 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  239 

of  that  question,  but  Mrs.  Makely  could  count  upon 
him  in  every  tiling,  if  she  could  only  get  the  man  to 
talk.  At  the  end  of  our  conference  we  decided  to 
interview  the  Altrurian  together. 

O 

I  shall  always  be  ashamed  of  the  way  that  woman 
wheedled  the  Altrurian,  when  we  found  him  the  next 
morning,  walking  up  and  clown  the  piazza,  before 
breakfast.  That  is,  it  was  before  our  breakfast ;  when 
we  asked  him  to  go  in  with  us,  he  said  he  had  just 
had  his  breakfast,  and  was  waiting  for  Reuben  Camp, 
who  had  promised  to  take  him  up  as  he  passed  with 
a  load  of  hay  for  one  of  the  hotels  in  the  village. 

"  Ah,  that  reminds  me,  Mr.  Homos,''  the  unscru 
pulous  woman  began  on  him,  at  once.  "  We  want  to 
interest  you  in  a  little  movement  we're  getting  up  for 
the  Union  chapel  in  the  village.  You  know  it's  the 
church  where  all  the  different  sects  have  their  services, 
alternately.  Of  course,  it's  rather  an  original  way  of 
doing,  but  there  is  sense  in  it  where  the  people  are 
too  poor  to  go  into  debt  for  different  churches,  and — " 

"  It's  admirable  !  "  said  the  Altrurian.  "  I  have 
heard  about  it  from  the  Camps.  It  is  an  emblem  of 
the  unity  which  ought  to  prevail  among  Christians  of 

all  professions.     How  can  I  help  yon,  Mrs.  Makely  ?  " 
1G 


240  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

"  I  knew  you  would  approve  of  it !  "  she  cxultied. 
"  Well,  it's  simply  this :  The  poor  little  place  has  got 
so  shabby  that  Tm  almost  ashamed  to  be  seen  going 
into  it,  for  one  ;  and  want  to  raise  money  enough  to 
give  it  a  new  coat  of  paint  outside  and  put  on  some 
kind  of  pretty  paper,  of  an  ecclesiastical  pattern,  on 
the  inside.  I  declare,  those  staring  white  walls, 
with  the  cracks  in  the  plastering  zigzagging  every 
ivhich  way,  distract  me  so  that  I  can't  put  my  mind 
on  the  sermon.  Don't  you  think  that  paper,  say  of 
a  gothic  design,  would  be  a  great  improvement?  I'm 
sure  it  would ;  and  it's  Mr.  Twelvemough's  idea,  too." 

I  learned  this  fact  now  for  the  first  time  ;  but,  with 
Mrs.  Makely's  warning  eye  upon  me,  I  could  not  say 
so,  and  I  made  what  sounded  to  me  like  a  gothic 
murmur  of  acquiescence.  It  sufficed  for  Mrs.*  Make- 
Jy's  purpose,  at  any  rate,  and  she  went  on,  without 
giving  the  Altrurian  a  chance  to  say  what  he  thought 
the  educational  effect  of  wall  paper  would  be : 

"  Well,  the  long  and  short  of  it  is  that  we  want  you 
to  make  this  money  for  us,  Mr.  Homos." 

"  I  ?  "  lie  started  in  a  kind  of  horror.  "  My  dear 
lady,  I  never  made  any  money  in  my  life !  I  should 
think  it  wrony  to  make  money  !  " 


A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA.       241 

"  In  Altruria,  yes.  We  all  know  how  it  is  in  your 
delightful  country,  and  I  assure  you  that  no  one  could 
respect  your  conscientious  scruples  more  than  I  do. 
But  you  must  remember  that  you  are  in  America, 
now.  In  America  you  have  to  make  money,  or  else 
— get  left.  And  then  you  must  consider  the  object, 
and  all  the  good  you  can  do,  indirectly,  by  a  little 
Talk  on  Altruria." 

He  answered,  blandly  :  "  A  little  Talk  on  Altruria  ? 
How  in  the  world  should  I  get  money  by  that  ? " 

She  was  only  too  eager  to  explain,  and  she  did  it 
with  so  much  volubility  and  at  such  great  length,  that 
I,  who  am  good  for  nothing  till  I  have  had  my  cup  of 
coffee  in  the  morning,  almost  perished  of  an  elucida 
tion  which  the  Altrurian  bore  with  the  sweetest 
patience. 

When  she  gave  him  a  chance  to  answer,  at  last,  he 
said  •  "  I  shall  be  very  happy  to  do  what  you  wish, 
madam." 

"  Will  you  ?  "  she  screamed.  "  Oh,  I'm  so  glad ! 
You  have  been  so  slippery  about  Altruria,  you  know, 
that  I  expected  nothing  but  a  point-blank  refusal. 
Of  course,  I  knew  you  would  be  kind  about  it.  Oh, 
I  can  hardly  believe  my  senses !  You  can't  think 


242  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

what  a  dear  you  are."  I  knew  she  had  got  that  word 
from  some  English  people  who  had  been  in  the  hotel ; 
and  she  was  working  it  rather  wildly,  but  it  was  not 
my  business  to  check  her.  "  Well,  then,  all  you  have 
got  to  do  is  to  leave  the  whole  thing  to  me,  and  not 
bother  about  it  a  bit  till  I  send  and  tell  you  we  are 
ready  to  listen.  There  comes  Reuben  with  his  ox- 
team  !  Thank  you  so  much,  Mr.  Homos.  No  one 
need  be  ashamed  to  enter  the  house  of  God  " — she 
said  Gawd,  in  an  access  of  piety — "  after  we  get  that 
paint  and  paper  on  it ;  and  we  shall  have  them  on  be 
fore  two  Sabbaths  have  passed  over  it." 

She  wrung  the  Altrurian's  hand  ;  I  was  only  afraid 
she  was  going  to  kiss  him. 

"  There  is  but  one  atipulation  I  should  like  to 
make,"  he  began. 

"Oh,  a  thousand,"  she  cut  in. 

"And  that  is,  there  shall  be  no  exclusion  from  my 
lecture  on  account  of  occupation  or  condition.  That 
is  a  thing  that  I  can  in  no  wise  countenance,  even  in 
America ;  it  is  far  more  abhorrent  to  me  even  than 
money-making,  though  they  are  each  a  part  and  parcel 
of  the  other." 

"  I  thought  it  was  that ! "   she   retorted  joyously. 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  243 

"  And  I  can  assure  you,  Mr.  Homos,  there  shall  be 
nothing  of  that  kind.  Every  one — I  don't  care  who 
it  is,  or  what  they  do — shall  hear  you  who  buys  a 
ticket.  Now,  will  that  do  ?  " 

"  Perfectly,"  said  the  Altrurian,  and  he  let  her 
wring  his  hand  again. 

She  pushed  hers  through  my  arm  as  we  started  for 
the  dining-room,  and  leaned  over  to  whisper  jubil 
antly  :  "  That  will  fix  it !  He  will  see  how  much  his 
precious  lower  classes  care  for  Altruria  if  they  have 
to  pay  a  dollar  apiece  to  "hear  about  it.  And  I  shall 
keep  faith  with  him  to  the  letter." 

I  could  not  feel  that  she  would  keep  it  in  the 
spirit ;  but  I  could  only  groan  inwardly  and  chuckle 
outwardly  at  the  woman's  depravity. 

It  seemed  to  me,  though  I  could  not  approve  of  it, 
a  capital  joke,  and  so  it  seemed  to  all  the  members  of 
the  little  group  whom  I  had  made  especially  ac 
quainted  with  the  Altrurian.  It  is  true  that  the 
minister  was  somewhat  troubled  with  the  moral  ques 
tion,  which  did  not  leave  me  wholly  at  peace  ;  and  the 
banker  affected  to  find  a  question  of  taste  involved, 
which  he  said  he  must  let  me  settle,  however,  as  the 
man's  host ;  if  I  could  stand  it,  he  could.  No  one 


214  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

said  anything  against  the  plan  to  Mrs.  Makcly,  and 
this  energetic  woman  made  us  take  two  tickets  apiece, 
as  soon  as  she  got  them  printed,  over  in  the  village. 
She  got  little  hand-bills  printed,  and  had  them  scat 
tered  about  through  the  neighborhood,  at  all  the 
hotels,  boarding-houses  and  summer  cottages,  to  give 
notice  of  the  time  and  place  of  the  talk  on  Altruria. 
She  fixed  this  for  the  following  Saturday  afternoon, 
in  our  hotel  parlor ;  she  had  it  in  the  afternoon  so  as 
not  to  interfere  with  the  hop  in  the  evening ;  she  put 
tickets  on  sale  at  the  principal  houses,  and  at  the 
village  drug-store,  and  she  made  me  go  about  with  her 
and  help  her  sell  them  at  some  of  the  cottages  in  per 
son. 

I  must  say  I  found  this  extremely  distasteful, 
especially  where  the  people  were  not  very  willing  to 
buy,  and  she  had  to  urge  them.  They  all  admitted 
the  excellence  of  the  object,  but  they  were  not  so  sure 
about  the  means.  At  several  places  the  ladies  asked 
who  was  this  Mr.  Homos,  anyway  ;  and  how  did  she 
know  he  was  really  from  Altruria  ?  He  might  be  an 
imposter. 

Then  Mrs.  Makely  would  put  me  forward,  and  I 
would  be  obliged  to  give  such  account  of  him  as  I 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  245 

could,  and  to  explain  just  how  and  why  he  came  to  be 
my  guest ;  with  the  cumulative  effect  of  bringing  back 
all  the  misgivings  which  I  had  myself  felt  at  the  out 
set  concerning  him,  and  which  I  had  dissmissed  as 
too  fantastic. 

The  tickets  went  off  rather  slowly,  even  in  our  own 
hotel ;  people  thought  them  too  dear ;  and  some,  as 
soon  as  they  knew  the  price,  said  frankly  they  had 
heard  enough  about  Altruria  already,  and  were  sick 
of  the  whole  thinij. 

£5 

Mrs.  Makely  said  this  Avas  quite  what  she  had  ex 
pected  of  those  people ;  that  they  were  horrid,  and 
stingy  and  vulgar ;  and  she  should  see  what  face  they 
would  have  to  ask  her  to  take  tickets  when  they  were 
trying  to  get  up  something.  She  began  to  be  vexed 
with  herself,  she  confessed,  at  the  joke  she  was  play 
ing  on  Mr.  Homos,  and  I  noticed  that  she  put  herself 
rather  defiantly  en  evidence  in  his  company,  whenever 
she  could  in  the  presence  of  these  reluctant  ladies. 
She  told  me  she  had  not  the  courage  to  ask  the  clerk 
how  many  of  the  tickets  he  had  sold  out  of  those  she 
had  left  at  the  desk.  One  morning,  the  third  or 
fourth,  as  I  was  going  in  to  breakfast  with  her,  the 
head  waiter  stopped  her  as  he  opened  the  door,  and 


246        A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA 

asked  modestly  if  she  could  spare  him  a  few  tickets, 
for  he  thought  he  could  sell  some.  To  my  amazement 
the  unprincipled  creature  said,  "  Why,  certainly. 
How  many  ?  "  and  instantly  took  a  package  out  of  her 
pocket,  where  she  seemed  always  to  have  them.  He 
asked,  Would  twenty  be  more  than  she  could  spare  ? 
and  she  answered,  "  Not  at  all !  Here  are  twenty- 
five,"  and  bestowed  the  whole  package  upon  him. 

That  afternoon  Reuben  Camp  came  lounging  up 
toward  us,  where  I  sat  with  her  on  the  corner  of  the 
piazza,  and  said  that  if  she  would  like  to  let  him  try 
his  luck  with  some  tickets  for  the  Talk  he  would  see 
what  he  could  do. 

"  You  can  have  all  you  want,  Reuben,"  she  said, 
u  and  I  hope  you'll  have  better  luck  than  I  have. 
I'm  perfectly  disgusted  with  people." 

She  fished  several  packages  out  of  her  pocket  this 
time,  and  he  asked,  "  Do  you  mean  that  I  can  have 
them  all  ? " 

"  Every  one,  and  a  band  of  music  into  the  bar 
gain"  she  answered  recklessly.  But  she  seemed  a 
little  daunted  when  he  quietly  took  them.  "  You 
know  there  are  a  hundred  here  ?  " 

"  Yes,  I  should  like  to  see  what  I  can  do  amongst 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  247 

the  natives.  Then,  there  is  a  construction  train  over 
at  the  junction,  and  I  know  a  lot  of  the  fellows.  I 
guess  some  of  'em  would  like  to  come." 

"  The  tickets  are  a  dollar  each,  you  know,"  she 
suggested. 

"  That's  all  right,"  said  Camp.  "  Well,  good  after 
noon." 

Mrs.  Makely  turned  to  me  with  a  kind  of  gasp,  as 
he  shambled  away.  "  I  don't  know  about  that !  " 

"  About  having  the  whole  crew  of  a  construction 
train  at  the  Talk  ?  I  dare  say  it  won't  be  pleasant  to 
the  ladies  who  have  bought  tickets." 

"  Oh ! "  said  Mrs.  Makely  with  astonishing  con- 
tepmt,  "  I  don't  care  what  they  think.  But  Reuben 
has  got  all  my  tickets,  and  suppose  he  keeps  them  so 
long  that  I  won't  have  time  to  sell  any,  and  then  throws 
them  back  on  my  hands  ?  /  know  !  she  added  joy 
ously.  "  I  can  go  around  now,  and  tell  people  that 
my  tickets  are  all  gone  ;  and  I'll  go  instantly  and  have 
the  clerk  hold  all  he  has  left  at  a  premium." 

She  came  back  looking  rather  blank. 

"  He  hasn't  got  a  single  one  left.  He  says  an  old 
native  came  in  this  morning  and  took  every  last  one 
of  them — he  doesn't  remember  just  how  many.  I 


248  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

believe  they're  going  to  speculate  on  them  ;  and  if 
Reuben  Camp  serves  me  a  trick  like  that —  Why  ! " 
she  broke  off,  "  I  believe  I'll  speculate  on  them  my 
self  !  I  should  like  to  know  why  I  shouldn't !  Oh, 
I  should  just  like  to  make  some  of  those  creatures  pay 
double,  or  treble,  for  the  chances  they've  refused.  Ah, 
Mrs.  Bulkham,"  she  called  out  to  a  lady  who  was 
coming  down  the  veranda  toward  us,  "  you'll  be  glad 
to  know  I've  got  rid  of  all  my  tickets !  Such  a 
relief ! " 

"You  have?"  Mrs.  Bulkham  retorted. 

"  Every  one." 

"  I  thought,"  said  Mrs.  Bulkham,  "  that  you  under 
stood  I  wanted  one  for  my  daughter  and  myself,  if 
she  came." 

"  I  certainly  didn't,"  said  Mrs.  Makcly,  with  a  wink 
of  concentrated  wickedness  at  me.  "  But  if  you  do, 
you  will  have  to  say  so  now,  without  any  ifs  or  ands 
about  it ;  and  if  any  of  the  tickets  come  back — I  let 
friends  have  a  few  on  sale — I  will  give  you  two." 

"  Well,  I  do,"  said  Mrs.  Bulkham,  after  a  moment. 

11  Very  well,  it  will  be  five  dollars  for  the  two.  I 
feel  bound  to  get  all  I  can  for  the  cause.  Shall  I  put 
your  name  down  ?  " 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  249 

"  Yes,"  said  Mrs.  Bulkham,  rather  crossly ;  but 
Mrs.  Makely  inscribed  her  name  on  her  tablets  with  a 
radiant  amiability,  which  suffered  no  eclipse  when, 
within  the  next  fifteen  minutes,  a  dozen  other  ladies 
hurried  up,  and  bought  in  at  the  same  rate. 

I  could  not  stand  it,  and  I  got  up  to  go  away, 
feeling  extremely  particeps  criminis.  Mrs.  Makely 
seemed  to  have  a  conscience  as  light  as  air. 

"  If  Reuben  Camp  or  the  head  waiter  don't  bring 
back  some  of  those  tickets  I  don't  know  what  I  shall 
do.  I  shall  have  to  put  chairs  into  the  isles,  and 
charge  five  dollars  apiece  for  as  many  people  as  I  can 
crowd  in  there.  I  never  knew  anything  so  perfectly 
providential." 

"  I  envy  you  the  ability  to  see  it  in  that  light,  Mrs. 
Makely,"  I  said,  faint  at  heart.  "  Suppose  Camp 
crowds  the  place  full  of  his  train  men,  how  will  the 
ladies  that  you've  sold  tickets  to  at  five  dollars  apiece 
like  it  ?  " 

"  Pooh  !  What  do  I  care  how  they  like  it !  Horrid 
things  !  And  for  repairs  on  the  house  of  Gawd,  it's 
the  same  as  being  in  church,  where  everybody  is 
equal." 

The  time  passed.     Mrs.  Makely  sold  chances  to  all 


250  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

the  ladies  in  the  house ;  on  Friday  night  Reuben  Camp 
brought  her  a  hundred  dollars ;  the  head  waiter  had 
already  paid  in  twenty-five.  "  I  didn't  dare  to  ask 
them  if  they  speculated  on  them,"  she  confided  to 
me.  "  Do  you  suppose  they  would  have  the  con 
science  ?  " 

They  had  secured  the  large  parlor  of  the  hotel, 
where  the  young  people  danced  in  the  evening,  and 
where  entertainments  were  held,  of  the  sort  usually 
given  in  summer  hotels  ;  we  had  already  had  a  dra 
matic  reading,  a  time  with  the  phonograph,  an 
exhibition  of  necromancy,  a  concert  by  a  college  glee 
club,  and  I  do  not  know  what  else.  The  room  would 
hold  perhaps  two  hundred  people,  if  they  were  closely 
seated,  and  by  her  own  showing,  Mrs.  Makely  had 
sold  above  two  hundred  and  fifty  tickets  and  chances. 
All  Saturday  forenoon  she  consoled  herself  with  the 
belief  that  a  great  many  people  at  the  other  hotels 
and  cottages  had  bought  scats  merely  to  aid  the 
cause,  and  would  not  really  come  ;  she  estimated  that 
at  least  fifty  would  stay  away :  but  if  Reuben  Camp 
had  sold  his  tickets  among  the  natives,  we  might 
expect  every  one  of  them  to  come  and  get  his  money's 
worth  ;  she  did  not  dare  to  ask  the  head  waiter  how 
he  had  got  rid  of  his  twenty-five  tickets. 


A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA.       251 

The  hour  set  for  the  Talk  to  begin  was  three 
o'clock,  so  that  people  could  have  their  naps  comfort 
ably  over,  after  the  one  o'clock  dinner,  and  be  just  in 
the  right  frame  of  mind  for  listening.  But  long 
before  the  appointed  time,  the  people  who  dine  at 
twelve,  and  never  take  an  afternoon  nap,  began  to 
arrive,  on  foot,  in  farm -wagons,  smart  buggies,  mud- 
crusted  carryalls,  and  all  manner  of  ramshackle 
vehicles.  They  arrived  as  if  coming  to  a  circus,  old 
husbands  and  wives,  young  couples  and  their  children, 
pretty  girls  and  their  fellows,  and  hitched  their 
horses  to  the  tails  of  their  wagons,  and  began  to  make 
a  picnic  lunch  in  the  shadow  of  the  grove  lying 
between  the  hotel  and  the  station.  About  two,  we 
heard  the  snorting  of  a  locomotive  at  a  time  when  no 
train  was  due,  and  a  construction  train  came  in  view, 
with  the  men  waving  their  handkerchiefs  from  the 
windows,  and  apparently  ready  for  all  the  fun  there 
was  to  be  in  the  thing.  Some  of  them  had  a  small 
flag  in  each  hand,  the  American  stars  and  stripes,  and 
the  white  flag  of  Altruria,  in  compliment  to  my  guest, 
I  suppose.  A  good  many  of  the  farmers  came  over 
to  the  hotel  to  buy  tickets,  which  they  said  they 
expected  to  get  after  they  came,  and  Mrs.  Makcly 


252  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

was  obliged  to  pacify  them  with  all  sorts  of  lying 
promises.  From  moment  to  moment  she  was  in  con- 
•  saltation  with  the  landlord,  who  decided  to  throw 
open  the  dining-room,  which  connected  with  the 
parlor,  so  as  to  allow  the  help  and  the  neighbors  to 
hear,  without  incommoding  the  hotel  guests.  She 
said  that  this  took  a  great  burden  off  her  mind,  and 
that  now  she  should  feel  perfectly  easy,  for  now  no 
one  could  complain  about  being  mixed  up  with  the 
servants  and  the  natives,  and  yet  every  one  could 
hear  perfectly. 

She  could  not  rest  until  she  had  sent  for  Homos 
and  told  him  of  this  admirable  arrangement.  I  did 
not  know  whether  to  be  glad  or  not,  when  he  in 
stantly  told  her  that,  if  there  was  to  be  any  such  sep 
aration  of  his  auditors,  in  recognition  of  our  class 
distinctions,  he  must  refuse  to  speak  at  all. 

11  Then,  what  in  the  world  are  we  to  do  ?  "  she 
wailed  out,  and  the  tears  came  into  her  eyes. 

"  Have  you  got  the  money  for  all  your  tickets  ?  " 
he  asked  with  a  sort  of  disgust  for  the  whole  trans 
action  in  his  tone. 

"  Yes,  and  more,  too.  I  don't  believe  there's  a 
soul,  in  the  hotel  or  out  of  it  that  hasn't  paid  at  least 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  253 

a  dollar  to  hear  you  :  and  that  makes  it  so  very  em 
barrassing.  Oh,  dear  Mr. Homos  !  You  won't  be  so 
implacably  high-principled  as  all  that !  Think  that 
you  are  doing-  it  for  the  house  of  Gawd." 

The  woman  made  me  sick. 

"  Then,  no  one,"  said  the  Altrurian,  "  can  feel 
aggrieved,  or  unfairly  used,  if  I  say  what  I  have  to 
say  in  the  open  air,  where  all  can  listen  equally, 
without  any  manner  of  preference  or  distinction.  We 
will  go  up  to  the  edge  of  the  grove  over-looking  the 
tennis-court,  and  hold  our  meeting  there,  as  the  Altru 
rian  meetings  arc  always  held,  with  the  sky  for  a 
roof,  and  with  no  walls  but  the  horizon." 

"  The  very  thing !  "  cried  Mrs.  Makcly.  "Who 
would  ever  have  thought  you  were  so  practical,  Mr. 
Homos  ?  I  don't  believe  you're  an  Altrurian,  after  all : 
I  believe  you  are  an  American  in  disguise." 

The  Altrurian  turned  away,  without  making  any 
response  to  this  flattering  attribution  of  our  national 
ity  to  him  ;  but  Mrs.  Makcly  had  not  waited  for  any. 
She  had  flown  off,  and  I  next  saw  her  attacking  the 
landlord,  with  such  apparent  success,  that  he  slapped 
himself  on  the  leg  and  vanished,  and  immediately  the 
porters  and  bell-boys  and  all  the  men-servants  began 


254  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

carrying  out  chairs  to  the  tennis-court,  which  was 
already  well  set  round  with  benches.  In  a  little 
while  the  whole  space  was  covered,  and  settees  were 
placed  well  up  the  ground  toward  the  grove. 

By  half  past  two,  the  guests  of  the  hotel  came  out, 
and  took  the  best  seats,  as  by  right,  and  the  different 
tallyhoes  and  mountain  wagons  began  to  arrive  from 
the  other  liotels,  with  their  silly  hotel  cries,  and  their 
gay  groups  dismounted  and  dispersed  themselves 
over  the  tennis  court  until  all  the  chairs  were  taken. 
It  was  fine  to  see  how  the  natives  and  the  trainmen 
and  the  hotel  servants,  with  an  instinctive  perception 
of  the  proprieties,  yielded  these  places  to  their 
superiors,  and,  after  the  summer  folks  were  all  seated, 
scattered  themselves  on  the  grass  and  the  pine-needles 
about  the  border  of  the  grove.  I  should  have  liked 
to  instance  the  fact  to  the  Altrurian,  as  a  proof  that 
this  sort  of  subordination  was  a  part  of  human  nature, 
and  that  a  principle  which  pervaded  our  civilization, 
after  the  democratic  training  of  our  whole  national 
life,  must  be  divinely  implanted.  But  there  Avas  no 
opportunity  for  me  to  speak  with  him  after  the  fact 
had  accomplished  itself,  for  by  this  time  he  had  taken 
his  place  in  front  of  a  little  clump  of  low  pines  and 


A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRUPIA.       255 

was  waiting  for  the  assembly  to  quiet  itself  before  lie 
began  to  speak.  I  do  not  think  there  could  have 
been  less  than  five  hundred  present,  and  the  scene 
had  that  accidental  picturesqueness  which  results  from 
the  grouping  of  all  sorts  of  faces  and  costumes. 
Many  of  our  ladies  had  pretty  hats  and  brilliant 
parasols,  but  I  must  say  that  the  soberer  tone  of 
some  of  the  old  farm-wives'  brown  calicoes  and  out 
dated  bonnets  contributed  to  enrich  the  coloring,  and 
there  was  a  certain  gaycty  in  the  sunny  glisten  of  the 
men's  straw-hats,  everywhere,  that  was  very  good. 

The  sky  overhead  was  absolutely  stainless,  and  the 
light  of  the  cool  afternoon  sun  dreamed  upon  the 
slopes  of  the  solemn  mountains  to  the  cast.  The  tall 
pines  in  the  background  blackened  themselves  against 
the  horizon  ;  nearer  they  showed  more  and  more 
decidedly  their  bluish  green,  and  the  yellow  of  the 
newly-fallen  needles  painted  their  aisles  deep  into  the 
airy  shadows. 

A  little  wind  stirred  their  tops,  and  for  a  moment, 
just  before  the  Altrurian  began  to  speak,  drew  from 
them  an  organ-tone  that  melted  delicately  away  as  his 

powerful  voice  rose. 
17 


XL 

"  I  COULD  not  give  you  a  clear  account  of  the 
present  state  of  things  in  my  country,"  the  Altrurian 
began,  "  without  first  telling  you  something  of  our 
conditions  before  the  time  of  our  Evolution.  It  seems 
to  be  the  law  of  all  life,  that  nothing  can  come  to 
fruition  without  dying  and  seeming  to  make  an  end. 
It  must  be  sown  in  corruption  before  it  can  be  raised 
in  incorruption.  The  truth  itself  must  perish  to  our 
senses  before  it  can  live  to  our  souls ;  the  Son  of  Man 
must  suffer  upon  the  cross  before  we  can  know  the 
Son  of  God. 

"  It  was  so  with  His  message  to  the  world,  which 
we  received  in  the  old  time  as  an  ideal  realized  by  the 
earliest  Christians,  who  loved  one  another  and  who 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  257 

had  all  things  common.  The  apostle  cast  away  upon 
our  heathen  coasts,  won  us  with  the  story  of  this  first 
Christian  republic,  and  he  established  a  commonwealth 
of  peace  and  goodwill  among  us  in  its  likeness.  Thf.t, 
commonwealth  perished,  just  as  its  prototype  perished, 
or  seemed  to  perish ;  and  long  ages  of  civic  and  eco 
nomic  warfare  succeeded,  when  every  man's  hand  was 
against  his  neighbor,  and  might  was  the  rule  that  got 
itself  called  right.  Religion  ceased  to  be  the  hope  of 
this  world,  and  became  the  vague  promise  of  the  next. 
We  descended  into  the  valley  of  the  shadow,  and 
dwelt  amid  chaos  for  ages,  before  v:c  groped  again 
into  the  light. 

"  The  first  glimmerings  were  few  and  indistinct, 
but  men  formed  themselves  about  the  luminous  points 
here  and  there,  and  when  these  broke  and  dispersed 
into  lesser  gleams,  still  men  formed  themselves  about 
each  of  them.  The"e  arose  a  system  of  things, 
better,  indeed,  than  th.it  darkness,  but  full  of  war, 
and  lust,  and  greed,  in  which  the  weak  rendered  hom 
age  to  the  strong,  and  served  them  in  the  field  and  in 
the  camp,  and  the  strong  in  turn  gave  the  weak  pro 
tection  against  the  other  strong.  It  was  a  juggle  in 
which  the  weak  did  not  see  that  their  safety  was 


258  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

after  all  from  themselves ;  but  it  was  an  image  of 
peace,  however  false  and  fitful,  and  it  endured  for  a 
time.  It  endured  for  a  limited  time,  if  we  measure 
by  the  life  of  the  race ;  it  endured  for  an  unlimited 
time  if  we  measure  by  the  lives  of  the  men  who  were 
born  and  died  while  it  endured. 

"  But  that  disorder,  cruel  and  fierce  and  stupid, 
which  endured  because  it  sometimes  masked  itself  as 
order,  'did  at  last  pass  away.  Here  and  there  one  of 
the  strong  overpowered  the  rest ;  then  the  strong  be 
came  fewer  and  fewer,  and  in  their  turn  they  all 
yielded  to  a  supreme  lord,  and  throughout  the  land 
there  was  one  rule,  as  it  was  called  then,  or  one  mis 
rule,  as  we  should  call  it  now.  This  rule,  or  this 
misrule,  continued  for  ages  more ;  and  again,  in  the 
immortality  of  the  race,  men  toiled  and  struggled,  and 
died  without  the  hope  of  better  things. 

"Then  the  time  came  whc1".  the  long  nightmare 
was  burst  with  the  vision  of  a  future  in  which  all 
men  were  the  law,  and  not  one  man,  or  any  less  num 
ber  of  men  than  all. 

"  The  poor,  dumb  beast  of  humanity  rose,  and  the 
throne  tumbled,  and  the  scepter  was  broken,  and  the 
crown  rolled  away  into  that  darkness  of  the  past. 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  259 

We  thought  that  heaven  had  descended  to  us,  and 
that  liberty,  equality  and  fraternity  were  ours.  We 
could  not  sec  what  should  again  alienate  us  from  one 
another,  or  how  one  brother  could  again  oppress  an 
other.  With  a  free  field  and  no  favor,  we  believed 
we  should  prosper  on  together,  and  there  would  be 
peace  and  plenty  for  all.  We  had  the  republic, 
again,  after  so  many  ages  now,  and  the  republic,  as 
we  knew  it  in  our  dim  annals,  was  brotherhood  and 
universal  happiness.  All  but  a  very  few  who  proph 
esied  evil  of  our  lawless  freedom,  were  wrapped  in 
a  delirium  of  hope.  Men's  minds  and  men's  hands 
were  suddenly  released  to  an  activity  unheard  of  be 
fore.  Invention  followed  invention ;  our  rivers  and 
seas  became  the  warp  of  commerce  where  the  steam- 
sped  shuttles  carried  the  woof  of  enterprise  to  and 
fro  with  tireless  celerity.  Machines  to  save  labor 
multiplied  themselves  as  if  they  had  been  procreative 
forces  ;  and  wares  of  every  sort  were  produced  with 
incredible  swiftness  and  cheapness.  Money  seemed 
to  flow  from  the  ground  \  vast  fortunes  *  rose  like  an 
exhalation/  as  your  Milton  says. 

"  At  first  we   did  not  know   that   they   were    the 
breath  of  the  nethermost  pits  of  hell,  and  that  the 


260  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

love  of  money  which  was  becoming  universal  with  us, 
was  filling  the  earth  with  the  hate  of  men.  It  was 
long  before  we  came  to  realize  that  in  the  depths  of 
our  steamships  were  those  who  fed  the  fires  with  their 
lives,  and  that  our  mines  from  which  we  dug  our 
wealth  were  the  graves  of  those  who  had  died  to  the 
free  light  and  air,  without  finding  the  rest  of  death. 
We  did  not  see  that  the  machines  for  saving  labor 
were  monsters  that  devoured  women  and  children, 
and  wasted  men  at  the  bidding  of  the  power  which  no 
man  must  touch. 

"  That  is,  we  thought  we  must  not  touch  it,  for  it 
called  itself  prosperity,  and  wealth,  and  the  public 
good,  and  it  said  that  it  gave  bread,  and  it  impudently 
bade  the  toiling  myriads  consider  what  would  become 
of  them,  if  it  took  away  their  means  of  wearing  them 
selves  out  in  its  service.  It  demanded  of  the  state 
absolute  immunity  and  absolute  impunity,  the  right 
to  do  its  will  wherever  and  however  it  would,  without 
question  from  the  people  who  were  the  final  law.  It 
had  its  way,  and  under  its  rule  we  became  the  richest 
people  under  the  sun.  The  Accumulation,  as  we 
called  this  power,  because  we  feared  to  call  it  by  its 
true  name,  rewarded  its  own  with  gains  of  twenty,  of 


A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA.       261 

a  hundred,  of  a  thousand  per  cent.,  and  to  satisfy  its 
need,  to  produce  the  labor  that  operated  its  machines, 
there  came  into  existence  a  hapless  race  of  men  who 
bred  their  kind  for  its  service,  and  whose  little  ones 
were  its  prey  almost  from  their  cradles.  Then  the 
infamy  became  too  great,  and  the  law,  the  voice  of 
the  people,  so  long  guiltily  silent,  was  lifted  in  behalf 
of  those  who  had  no  helper.  The  Accumulation  came 
under  control,  for  the  first  time,  and  could  no  longer 
work  its  slaves  twenty  hours  a  day  amid  perils  to  life 
and  limb  from  its  machinery  and  in  conditions  that 
forbade  them  decency  and  morality.  The  time  of  a 
hundred  and  a  thousand  per  cent,  passed;  but  still 
the  Accumulation  demanded  immunity  and  impunity, 
and  in  spite  of  its  conviction  of  the  enormities  it  had 
practiced,  it  declared  itself  the  only  means  of  civiliza 
tion  and  progress.  It  began  to  give  out  that  it  was 
timid,  though  its  history  was  full  of  the  boldest  frauds 
and  crimes,  and  it  threatened  to  withdraw  itself  if  it 
were  ruled  or  even  crossed  ;  and  again  it  had  its  way, 
and  we  seemed  to  prosper  more  and  more.  The  land 
was  filled  with  cities  where  the  rich  flaunted  their 
splendor  in  palaces,  and  the  poor  swarmed  in  squalid 
tenements.  The  country  was  drained  of  its  life  and 


262  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

force,  to  feed  the  centers  of  commerce  and  industry. 
The  whole  land  was  bound  together  with  a  network 
of  iron  roads  that  linked  the  factories  and  foundries 
to  the  fields  and  mines,  and  blasted  the  landscape 
with  the  enterprise  that  spoiled  the  lives  of  men. 

"Then,  all  at  once,  when  its  work  seemed  perfect 
and  its  dominion  sure,  the  Accumulation  was  stricken 
with  consciousness  of  the  lie  always  at  its  heart.  It 
had  hitherto  cried  out  for  a  free  field  and  no  favor, 
for  unrestricted  competition ;  but,  in  truth,  it  had 
never  prospered,  except  as  a  monopoly.  Whenever 
and  wherever  competition  had  play,  there  had  been 
nothing  but  disaster  to  the  rival  enterprises,  till  one 
rose  over  the  rest.  Then  there  was  prosperity  for 
that  one. 

"The  Accumulation  began  to  act  upon  its  new 
consciousness.  The  iron  roads  united  ;  the  warring 
industries  made  peace,  each  kind  under  a  single  lead 
ership.  Monopoly,  not  competition,  was  seen  to  be 
the  beneficent  means  of  distributing  the  favors  and 
blessings  of  the  Accumulation  to  mankind.  But  as 
before,  there  was  alternately  a  glut  and  dearth  of 
things,  and  it  often  happened  that  when  starving  men 
went  ragged  through  the  streets,  the  storehouses  were 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRTJRIA.  263 

piled  full  of  rotting  harvests  that  the  farmers  toiled 
from  dawn  till  dusk  to  grow,  and  the  warehouses  fed 
the  moth  with  the  stuffs  that  the  operative  had  woven 
his  life  into  at  his  loom.  Then  followed,  with  a  blind 
and  mad  succession,  a  time  of  famine,  when  money 
could  not  buy  the  superabundance  that  vanished,  none 
knew  how  or  why. 

"  The  money  itself  vanished  from  time  to  time,  and 
disappeared  into  the  vaults  of  the  Accumulation,  for 
no  better  reason  than  that  for  which  it  poured  itself 
out  at  other  times.  Our  theory  was  that  the  people, 
that  is  to  say  the  government  of  the  people,  made  the 
people's  money,  but,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Accumu 
lation  made  it,  and  controlled  it,  and  juggled  with  it; 
and  now  you  saw  it,  and  now  you  did  not  see  it. 
The  government  made  gold  coins,  but  the  people  had 
nothing  but  the  paper  money  that  the  Accumulation 
made.  But  whether  there  was  scarcity  or  plenty,  the 
failures  went  on  with  a  continuous  ruin  that  nothing 
could  check,  while  our  larger  economic  life  proceeded 
in  a  series  of  violent  shocks,  which  we  called 
financial  panics,  followed  by  long  periods  of  exhaus 
tion  and  recuperation.  There  was  no  law  in  our 
economy,  but  as  the  Accumulation  had  never  cared 


264       A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA. 

for  the  nature  of  law,  it  did  not  trouble  itself  for  its 
name  in  our  order  of  things.  It  had  always  bought 
the  law  it  needed  for  its  own  use,  first  through  the 
voter  at  the  polls  in  the  more  primitive  days,  and 
then,  as  civilization  advanced,  in  the  legislatures  and 
the  courts.  But  the  corruption  even  of  these  methods 
was  far  surpassed  when  the  era  of  consolidation  came, 
and  the  necessity  for  statutes  and  verdicts  and 
decisions  became  more  stringent.  Then  we  had  such 
a  burlesque  of  " — 

"  Look  here  ! "  a  sharp  nasal  voice  snarled  across 
the  rich,  full  pipe  of  the  Altrurian,  and  we  all 
instantly  looked  there.  The  voice  came  from  an  old 
farmer,  holding  himself  stiffly  up,  with  his  hands  in 
his  pockets  and  his  lean  frame  bent  toward  the 
speaker.  "  When  are  you  goin'  to  get  to  Altrury  ? 
We  know  all  about  Ameriky." 

He  sat  down  again,  and  it  was  a  moment  before 
the  crowd  caught  on.  Then  a  yell  of  delight  and  a 
roar  of  volleyed  laughter  went  up  from  the  lower 
classes,  in  which,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  my  friend,  the 
banker,  joined,  so  far  as  the  laughter  was  concerned. 
•*  Good  !  That's  it  !  First-rate  !  "  came  from  a  hundred 
vulgar  throats. 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  265 

"  Isn't  it  a  perfect  shame  ? "  Mrs.  Makely  de- 
'manded.  "  I  think  some  of  you  gentlemen  ought  to 
say  something  !  What  will  Mr.  Homos  think  of  our 
civilization  if  we  let  such  interruptions  go  unre- 
buked !  " 

She  was  sitting  between  the  banker  and  myself, 
and  her  indignation  made  him  laugh  more  and  more. 
"  Oh,  it  serves  him  right,"  he  said.  Don't  you  see 
that  he  is  hoist  with  his  own  petard  ?  Let  him  alone. 
He's  in  the  hands  of  his  friends." 

The  Altrurian  waited  for  the  tumult  to  die  away, 
and  then  he  said  gently  :  •'  I  don't  understand." 

The  old  farmer  jerked  himself  to  his  feet  again : 
"  It's  like  this  :  I  paid  my  dolla'  to  hear  about  a 
country  where  there  wa'n't  no  cooperations,  nor  no 
monop'lies,  nor  no  buyin'  up  cou'ts ;  and  I  ain't 
agoin'  to  have  no  allegory  shoved  down  my  throat, 
instead  of  a  true  history,  noways.  I  know  all  about 
how  it  is  here.  Fi'st,  run  their  line  through  your 
backya'd,  and  then  kill  off  your  cattle,  and  keep 
kerryin'  on  it  up  from  cou't  to  cou't,  till  there  ain't 
hide  or  hair  oh  'em  left — 

"  Oh,  set  down,  set  down  !  Let  the  man  go  on ! 
He'll  make  it  all  right  with  you,"  one  of  the  construe- 


266  A    TRAVELER    I  ROM    ALTRURIA. 

tion  gang  called  out;  but  the  farmer  stood  his  ground, 
and  I  could  hear  him  through  the  laughing  and  shout 
ing,  keep  saying  something  from  time  to  time,  about 
not  wanting  to  pay  no  dolla'  for  no  talk  about  co'pera- 
tions  and  monop'lies  that  we  had  right  under  our  own 
noses  the  whole  while,  and  you  might  say,  in  your 
very  bread  troughs ;  till,  at  last,  I  saw  Reuben  Camp 
make  his  way  towards  him,  and,  after  an  energetic 
expostulation,  turn  to  leave  him  again. 

Then  he  faltered  out,  "  I  guess  it's  all  right,"  and 
dropped  out  of  sight  in  the  group  he  had  risen  from. 
I  fancied  his  wife  scolding  him  there,  and  all  but 
shaking  him  in  public. 

"•I  should  be  very  sorry,"  the  Altrurian  proceeded, 
"  to  have  anyone  believe  that  I  have  not  been  giving 
you  a  bona  fide  account  of  conditions  in  my  country 
before  the  Evolution,  when  we  first  took  the  name  of 
Altruria  in  our  great,  peaceful  campaign  against  the 
Accumulation.  As  for  offering  you  any  allegory  or 
travesty  of  your  own  conditions,  I  will  simply  say 
that  I  do  not  know  them  well  enough  to  do  so  intelli 
gently.  But,  whatever  they  are,  God  forbid  that  the 
likeness  which  you  seem  to  recognize  should  ever  go 
so  far  as  the  desperate  state  of  things  which  we 


A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA.       267 

finally  reached.  I  will  not  trouble  you  with  details  ; 
in  fact,  I  have  been  afraid  that  I  had  already  treated 
of  our  affairs  too  abstractly  ;  but,  since  your  own  ex 
perience  furnishes  you  the  means  of  seizing  my  mean 
ing,  I  will  go  on  as  before. 

"  You  will  understand  me  when  I  explain  that  the 
Accumulation  had  not  erected  itself  into  the  sov 
ereignty,  with  us  unopposed.  The  workingmen  who 
suffered  most  from  its  oppression  had  early  begun  to 
band  themselves  against  it,  with  the  instinct  of  self- 
preservation,  first  trade  by  trade,  and  art  by  art,  and 
then  in  congresses  and  federations  of  the  trades  and 
arts,  until  finally  they  enrolled  themselves  in  one  vast 
union,  which  included  all  the  workingmen  whom 
their  necessity  or  their  interest  did  not  leave  on  the 
side  of  the  Accumulation.  This  beneficent  and  gen 
erous  association  of  the  weak  for  the  sake  of  the 
weakest  did  not  accomplish  itself  fully  till  the  baleful 
instinct  of  the  Accumulation  had  reduced  the  mo 
nopolies  to  one  vast  monopoly,  till  the  stronger  had 
devoured  the  weaker  among  its  members,  and  the 
supreme  agent  stood  at  the  head  of  our  affairs,  in 
everything  but  name,  our  imperial  ruler.  We  had 
hugged  so  long  the  delusion  of  each  man  for  himself, 


268  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTKURIA. 

that  we  bad  suffered  all  realty  to  be  taken  from  us. 
The  Accumulation  owned  the  land  as  well  as  the 
mines  under  it  and  the  shops  over  it ;  the  Accumula 
tion  owned  the  seas  and  the  ships  that  sailed  the 
seas,  and  the  fish  that  swam  in  their  depths ;  it  owned 
transportation  and  distribution,  and  the  wares  and 
products  that  were  to  be  carried  to  and  fro ;  and  by  a 
logic  irresistible  and  inexorable,  the  Accumulation 
was,  and  we  were  not. 

"  But  the  Accumulation,  too,  had  forgotten  some 
thing.  It  had  found  it  so  easy  to  buy  legislatures 
and  courts,  that  it  did  not  trouble  itself  about  the 
polls.  It  left  us  the  suffrage,  and  let  us  amuse  our 
selves  with  the  periodical  election  of  the  political  clay 
images  which  it  manipulated  and  moulded  to  any 
shape  and  effect,  at  its  pleasure.  The  Accumulation 
knew  that  it  was  the  sovereignty,  whatever  figure-head 
we  called  president,  or  governor,  or  mayor  :  we  had 
other  names  for  these  officials,  but  I  use  their  ana 
logues  for  the  sake  of  clearness,  and  I  hope  my  good 
friend  over  there  will  not  think  I  am  still  talking 
about  America." 

•'  No,"  the  old  farmer  called  back,  without  rising, 
"  we  hain't  got  there,  quite,  yit." 


A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA.        269 

"  No  hurry,"  said  a  trainman.  "  All  in  good  time. 
Go  on  !  "  he  called  to  the  Altrurian. 

The  Altrurian  resumed  : 

"  There  had  been,  from  the  beginning,  an  almost 
ceaseless  struggle  between  the  Accumulation  and  the 
proletariate.  The  Accumulation  always  said  that  it 
was  the  best  friend  of  the  proletariate,  and  it  de 
nounced,  through  the  press  which  it  controlled,  the 
proletarian  leaders  who  taught  that  it  was  the  enemy 
of  the  proletariat,  and  who  stirred  up  strikes  and 
tumults  of  all  sorts,  for  higher  wages  and  fewer  hours. 
But  the  friend  of  the  proletariat,  whenever  occasion 
served,  treated  the  proletariat  like  a  deadly  enemy. 
In  seasons  of  over-production,  as  it  was  called,  it 
locked  the  workmen  out,  or  laid  them  off,  and  left 
their  families  to  starve,  or  ran  light  work,  and  claimed 
the  credit  of  public  benefactors  for  running  at  all.  It 
sought  every  chance  to  reduce  wages;  it  had  laws 
passed  to  forbid  or  cripple  the  workmen  in  their 
strikes  ;  and  the  judges  convicted  them  of  conspiracy, 
and  wrested  the  statutes  to  their  hurt,  in  cases  where 
there  had  been  no  thought  of  embarrassing  them,  even 
among  the  legislators.  God  forbid  that  you  should 
ever  come  to  such  a  pass  in  America ;  but,  if  you  ever 


270       A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA. 

should,  God  grant  that  you  may  find  your  way  out  as 
simply  as  we  did  at  test,  when  freedom  had  perished 
in  everything  but  name  among  us,  and  justice  had 
become  a  mockery. 

"  The  Accumulation  had  advanced  so  smoothly,  so 
lightly,  in  all  its  steps  to  the  supreme  powrer,  and  had 
at  last  so  thoroughly  quelled  the  uprisings  of  the  pro 
letariat,  that  it  forgot  one  thing :  it  forgot  the 
despised  and  neglected  suffrage.  The  ballot,  because 
it  had  been  so  easy  to  annul  its  effect,  had  been  left  in 
the  people's  hands  ;  and  when,  at  last,  the  leaders  of 
the  proletariat  ceased  to  counsel  strikes,  or  any  form 
of  resistance  to  the  Accumulation  that  could  be  tor 
mented  into  the  likeness  of  insurrection  against  the 
government,  and  began  to  urge  them  to  attack  it  in 
the  political  way,  the  deluge  that  swept  the  Accumu 
lation  out  of  existence  came  trickling  and  creeping 
over  the  land.  It  appeared  first  in  the  country,  a 
spring  from  the  ground  ;  then  it  gathered  head  in  the 
villages  ;  then  it  swelled  to  a  torrent  in  the  cities.  I 
cannot  stay  to  trace  its  course ;  but  suddenly,  one  day, 
when  the  Accumulation's  abuse  of  a  certain  power 
became  too_gross.  it  was  voted_out.  of  that  power. 
You  will  perhaps  be  interested  to  know  that  it  was' 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  271 

with  the  telegraphs  that  the  rebellion  against  the  Ac 
cumulation  began,  and  the  government  was  forced  by 
the  overwhelming  majority  which  the  proletariat  sent 
to  our  parliament,  to  assume  a  function  which  the 
Accumulation  had  impudently  usurped.  Then  the 
transportation  of  smaller  and  more  perishable  wares" — 
"  Yes,"  a  voice  called,  "  express  business.  Go  on." 
"  Was  legislated  a  function  of  the  post  office,"  the 
Altrurian  went  on.  "  Then  all  transportation  was 
taken  into  the  hands  of  the  political  government, 
which  had  always  been  accused  of  great  corruption  in 
its  administration,  but  which  showed  itself  immacu 
lately  pure,  compared  with  the  Accumulation.  The 
common  ownership  of  mines  necessarily  followed,  with 
an  allotment  of  lands  to  anyone  who  wished  to  live 
by  tilling  the  land ;  but  not  a  foot  of  the  land  was 
remitted  to  private  hands  for  purposes  of  selfish 
pleasure  or  the  exclusion  of  any  other  from  the  land 
scape.  As  all  businesses  had  been  gathered  into  the 
grasp  of  the  Accumulation,  and  the  manufacture  of 
everything  they  used  and  the  production  of  everything 
that  they  ate  was  in  the  control  of  the  Accumulation, 
its  transfer  to  the  government  was  the  work  of  a 

single  clause  in  the  statute. 
18 


272  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

"  The  Accumulation,  which  had  treated  the  first 
menaces  of  resistance  with  contempt,  awoke  to  its 
peril  too  late.  When  it  turned  to  wrest  the  suffrage 
from  the  proletariat,  at  the  first  election  where  it  at 
tempted  to  make  head  against  them,  it  was  simply 
snowed  under,  as  your  picturesque  phrase  is.  The 
Accumulation  had  no  voters,  except  the  few  men  at 
its  head,  and  the  creatures  devoted  to  it  by  interest 
and  ignorance.  It  seemed,  at  one  moment,  as  if  it 
would  offer  an  armed  resistance  to  the  popular  will, 
but,  happily,  that  moment  of  madness  passed.  Our 
Evolution  was  accomplished  without  a^drop  of  blood 
shed,  and  the  first  great  political  brotherhood,  the 
commonwealth  of  Altruria,  was  founded. 

"  I  wish  that  I  had  time  to  go  into  a  study  of  some 
of  the  curious  phases  of  the  transformation  from  a 
civility  in  which  the  people  lived  upon  each  other  to 
one  in  which  they  lived  for  each  other.  There  is  a 
famous  passage  in  the  inaugural  message  of  our  first 
Altrurian  president,  which  compares  the  new  civic 
consciousness  with  that  of  a  disembodied  spirit  re 
leased  to  the  life  beyond  this  and  freed  from  all  the 
selfish  cares  and  greeds  of  the  flesh.  But  perhaps  I 
shall  give  a  sufficiently  clear  notion  of  the  triumph  of 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  273 

the  change  among  us,  when  I  say  that  within  half  a 
decade  after  the  fall  of  the  old  plutocratic  oligarchy 
one  of  the  chief  directors  of  the  Accumulation  pub 
licly  expressed  his  gratitude  to  God  that  the  Accumu 
lation  had  passed  away  forever.  You  will  realize  the 
importance  of  such  an  expression  in  recalling  the 
declarations  some  of  your  slaveholders  have  made 
since  the  civil  war,  that  they  would  not  have  slavery 
restored  for  any  earthly  consideration. 

"  But  now,  after  this  preamble,  which  has  been  so 
much  longer  than  I  meant  it  to  be,  how  shall  I  give 
you  a  sufficiently  just  conception  of  the  existing  Altru- 
ria,  the  actual  state  from  which  I  come  ? " 

"  Yes,"  came  the  nasal  of  the  old  farmer,  again, 
"  that's  what  we  are  here  fur.  I  wouldn't  give  a  cop 
per  to  know  all  you  went  through  beforehand.  It's 
too  dumn  like  what  we  have  been  through  ourselves, 
as  fur  as  heard  from." 

A  shout  of  laughter  went  up  from  most  of  the 
crowd,  but  the  Altrurian  did  not  seem  to  see  any  fun 
in  it. 

"  Well,"  he  resumed,  "  I  will  tell  you,  as  well  as  I 
can,  what  Altruria  is  like,  but,  in  the  first  place,  you 
will  have  to  cast  out  of  your  minds  all  images  of  civil- 


274       A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA. 

ization  with  which  your  experience  has  filled  them. 
For  a  time,  the  shell  of  the  old  Accumulation  re 
mained  for  our  social  habitation,  and  we  dwelt  in  the 
old  competitive  and  monopolistic  forms  after  the  life 
had  gone  out  of  them.  That  is,  we  continued  to  live 
in  populous  cities,  and  we  toiled  to  heap  up  riches  for 
the  moth  to  corrupt,  and  we  slaved  on  in  making 
utterly  useless  things,  merely  because  we  had  the  habit 
of  making  them  to  sell.  For  a  while  we  made  the  old 
sham  things,  which  pretended  to  be  useful  things  and 
were  worse  than  the  confessedly  useless  things.  I 
will  give  you  an  illustration  from  the  trades,  which  you 
will  all  understand.  The  proletariat,  in  the  competi 
tive  and  monopolistic  time,  used  to  make  a  kind  of 
shoes  for  the  proletariat,  or  the  women  of  the  prole 
tariat,  which  looked  like  fine  shoes  of  the  best  quality. 
It  took  just  as  much  work  to  make  these  shoes  as  to 
make  the  best  fine  shoes ;  but  they  were  shams  through 
and  through.  They  wore  out  in  a  week,  and  the  peo 
ple  called  them,  because  they  were  bought  fresh  for 
every  Sunday  " — 

"  Sat'd'y  night  shoes,"  screamed  the  old  farmer. 
"  I  know  'em.  My  gals  buy  'em.  Half  dolla'  a  pai', 
and  not  wo'th  the  money." 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  275 

"  Well,"  said  the  Altrurian,  "  they  were  a  cheat 
and  a  lie,  in  every  way,  and  under  the  new  system  it 
was  not  possible,  when  public  attention  was  called  to 
the  fact,  to  continue  the  falsehood  they  embodied.  As 
soon  as  the  Saturday  night  shoe  realized  itself  to  the 
public  conscience,  an  investigation  began,  and  it  was 
found  that  the  principle  of  the  Saturday  night  shoe 
underlay  half  our  industries  and  made  half  the  work 
that  was  done.  Then  an  immense  reform  took  place. 
We  renounced,  in  the  most  solemn  convocation  of  the 
whole  economy,  the  principle  of  the  Saturday  night 
shoe,  and  those  who  had  spent  their  lives  in  producing 
sham  shoes — " 

"  Yes,"  said  the  professor,  rising  from  his  scat  near 
us,  and  addressing  the  speaker,  "  I  shall  be  very  glad 
to  know  what  became  of  the  worthy  and  industrious 
operatives  who  were  thrown  out  of  employment  by 
this  explosion  of  economic  virtue." 

"  Why,"  the  Altrurian  replied,  "  they  were  set  to 
work  making  honest  shoes;  and  as  it  took  no  more 
time  to  make  a  pair  of  honest  shoes  which  lasted  a 
year,  than  it  took  to  make  a  pair  of  dishonest  shoes 
that  lasted  a  week,  the  amount  of  labor  in  shocmak- 
ing  was  at  once  enormously  reduced." 


276  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

"  Yes,"  said  the  professor,  "  I  understand  that. 
What  became  of  the  shoemakers  ?  " 

"  They  joined  the  vast  army  of  other  laborers  who 
had  been  employed,  directly  or  indirectly,  in  the  fab 
rication  of  fradulent  wares.  These  shoemakers — 
lasters,  buttonholers,  binders,  and  so  on — no  longer 
wore  themselves  out  over  their  machines.  One  hour 
sufficed  where  twelve  hours  were  needed  before,  and 
the  operatives  were  released  to  the  happy  labor  of  the 
fields,  where  no  one  with  us  toils  killingly,  from  dawn 
ill  dusk,  but  does  only  as  much  \vork  as  is  needed  to 
*eep  the  body  in  health.  We  had  a  continent  to 
refine  and  beautify ;  we  had  climates  to  change,  and 
seasons  to  modify,  a  whole  system  of  meteorology  to 
readjust,  and  the  public  works  gave  employment  to 
the  multitudes  emancipated  from  the  soul-destroying 
service  of  shams.  I  can  scarcely  give  you  a  notion  of 
the  vastness  of  the  improvements  undertaken  and  car 
ried  through,  or  still  in  process  of  accomplishment. 
But  a  single  one  will,  perhaps,  afford  a  sufficient  illus 
tration.  Our  southeast  coast,  from  its  vicinity  to  the 
pole,  had  always  suffered  from  a  winter  of  antarctic 
rigor;  but  our  first  president  conceived  the  plan  of 
cutting  off  a  peninsula,  which  kept  the  equatorial 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  2~1~I 

current  from  making  in  to  our  shores ;  and  the  work 
was  begun  in  his  term,  though  the  entire  strip,  twenty 
miles  in  width  and  ninety-three  in  length,  was  not 
severed  before  the  end  of  the  first  Altrurian  decade. 
Since  that  time  the  whole  region  of  our  southeastern 
coast  has  enjoyed  the  climate  of  your  Mediterrean 
countries. 

"  It  was  not  only  the  makers  of  fradulent  things 
who  were  released  to  these  useful  and  wholesome 
labors,  but  those  who  had  spent  themselves  in  con 
triving  ugly  and  stupid  and  foolish  things  were  set; 
free  to  the  public  employments.  The  multitude  ofi 
these  monstrosities  and  iniquities  was  as  great  as  that 
of  the  shams  " — 

Here  I  lost  some  words,  for  the  professor  leaned 
over  and  whispered  to  me:  "  He  has  got  that  out  of 
William  Morris.  Depend  upon  it,  the  man  is  a  hum 
bug.  He  is  not  an  Altrurian  at  all." 

I  confess  that  my  heart  misgave  me ;  but  I  signalled 
the  professor  to  be  silent,  and  again  gave  the  Altrurian 
— if  he  was  an  Altrurian — my  whole  attention. 


XII. 


"AND  so,"  the  Altrurian  continued,  "  when  the 
labor  of  the  community  was  emancipated  from  the 
bondage  of  the  false  to  the  free  service  of  the  true,  it 
was  also,  by  an  inevitable  implication,  dedicated  to 
beauty  and  rescued-  from  the  old  slavery  to  the  ugly, 
the  stupid  and  the  trivial.  The  thing  that  was  honest 
and  useful  became,  by  the  operation  of  a  natural  law, 
a  beautiful  thing.  Once  we  had  not  time  enough  to 
make  things  beautiful,  we  were  so  overworked  in 
making  false  and  hideous  things  to  sell ;  but  now  we 
had  all  the  time  there  was,  and  a  glad  emulation  arose 
among  the  trades  and  occupations  to  the  end  that 
everything  done  should  be  done  finely  as  well  as  done 
honestly.  The  artist,  the  man  of  genius.  who_\vorkcd 


A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA.      279 

from  the  love  of   his  work  became  the__QOrrnal  man, 


and  in  the  measure  of  his  ability  and  of  his  calling 
each  wrought  in. the  spirit -oJLtlie -artist— ""We  got  back 
the  pleasure  of-doiag-a-thing  beautifully,  which  was 
God's  primal  blessing  upon  all  his  working  children, 
but  which  we  had  lost  in  the  horrible  days  of  our 
need  and  greed.  There  is  not  a  working  man  within 
the  sound  of  my  voice,  but  has  known  this  divine 
delight,  and  would  gladly  know  it  always  if  he  only 
had  the  time.  Well,  now  we  had  the  time,  the  Evolu 
tion  had  given  us  the  time,  and  in  all  Altruria  there 
was  not  a  furrow  driven  or  a  swath  mown,  not  a 
hammer  struck  on  house  or  on  ship,  not  a  stitch  sewn 
or  a  stone  laid,  not  a  line  written  or  a  sheet  printed, 
not  a  temple  raised  or  an  engine  built,  but  it  was 
done  with  an  eye  to  beauty  as  well  as  to  use. 

"  As  soon  as  we  were  freed  from  the  necessity  of 
preying  upon  one  another,  we  found  that  there  was  no 
hurry.  The  good  work  would  wait  to  be  well  done  ; 
and  one  of  the  earliest  effects  of  the  Evolution  was 
the  disuse  of  the  swift  trains  which  had  traversed  the 
continent,  night  and  day,  that  one  man  might  over 
reach  another,  or  make  haste  to  undersell  his  rival,  or 
seize  some  advantage  of  him,  or  plot  some  profit  to 


280  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

his  loss.  Nine-tenths  of  the  railroads,  which  in  the 
old  times  had  ruinously  competed,  and  then  in  the 
hands  of  the  Accumulation  had  been  united  to  impov 
erish  and  oppress  the  people,  fell  into  disuse.  The 
commonwealth  operated  the  few  lines  that  were 
necessary  for  the  collection  of  materials  and  the  dis 
tribution  of  manufactures,  and  for  pleasure  travel 
and  the  affairs  of  state  :  but  the  roads  that  had  been 
built  to  invest  capital,  or  parallel  other  roads,  or  'make 
work,'  as  it  was  called,  or  to  develop  resources,  or 
boom  localities,  were  suffered  to  fall  into  ruin  ;  the 
rails  were  stripped  from  the  landscape,  which  they 
had  bound  as  with  shackles,  and  the  road-beds  became 
highways  for  the  use  of  kindly  neighborhoods,  or 
nature  recovered  them  wholly  and  hid  the  memory  of 
their  former  abuse  in  grass  and  flowers  and  wild  vines. 
The  ugly  towns  that  they  had  forced  into  being,  as 
Frankenstein  was  fashioned,  from  the  materials  of  the 
charnel,  and  that  had  no  life  in  or  from  the  good  of 
the  community,  soon  tumbled  into  decay.  The  ad 
ministration  used  parts  of  them  in  the  construction  of 
the  villages  in  which  the  Altrurians  now  mostly  live  ; 
but  generally  these  towns  were  built  of  materials  so 
fraudulent,  in  form  so  vile,  that  it  was  judged  best  to 


A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA.       281 

burn  them.  In  this  way  their  sites  were  at  once 
purified  and  obliterated. 

"  \Vc  had,  of  course,  a  great  many  large  cities 
under  the  old  egoistic  conditions,  which  increased 
and  fattened  upon  the  country,  and  fed  their  cancer 
ous  life  with  fresh  infusions  of  its  blood.  We  had 
several  cities  of  half  a  million,  and  one  of  more  than  a 
million  ;  we  had  a  score  of  them  with  a  population  of 
a  hundred  thousand  or  more.  We  were  very  proud 
of  them,  and  vaunted  them  as  a  proof  of  our  un 
paralleled  prosperity,  though  really  they  never,  were 
anything  but  congeries  of  millionaires  and  the 
wretched  creatures  who  served  them  and  supplied 
them.  Of  course,  there  was  everywhere  the  appear 
ance  of  enterprise  and  activity,  but  it  meant  final  loss 
for  the  great  mass  of  the  business  men,  large  and 
small,  and  final  gain  for  the  millionaires.  These,  and 
their  parasites  dwelt  together,  the  rich  starving  the 
poor  and  the  poor  plundering  and  mis-governing  the 
rich  ;  and  it  was  the  intolerable  suffering  in  the  cities 
that  chiefly  hastened  the  fall  of  the  old  Accumulation, 
and  the  rise  of  the  Commonwealth. 

"Almost  from  the  moment  oi  the  Evolution  the 
competitive  and  monopolistic  centers  of  population 


282  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

began  to  decline.   In  the  clear  light  of  the  new  order  it 
was  seen  that  they  were  not  fit  dwelling-places  for  men, 
either  in  the  complicated  and  luxurious  palaces  where 
the  rich  fenced  themselves  from  their  kind,  or  in  the 
vast  tenements,  towering  height  upon  height,  ten  and 
twelve  stories  up,  where  the  swarming  poor  festered 
in  vice    and  sickness  and  famine.     If  I  were  to  tell 
you  of    the  fashion  of   those  cities  of    our    egoistic 
epoch,  how  the  construction  was  one  error  from  the 
first,  and  every  correction  of  an    error   bred   a    new 
defect,  I  should  make  you  laugh,  I  should  make  you 
weep.     We  let  them    fall  to  ruin   as  quickly  as  they 
would,  and  their  sites  are  still  so  pestilential,  after  the 
lapse  of  centuries,  that  travellers  are  publicly  guarded 
against  them.   Ravening  beasts  and  poisonous  reptiles 
lurk  in    those  abodes  of   the  riches  and  the  poverty 
that  are  no  longer  known  to  our  life.     A  part  of  one 
of  the  less  malarial  of  the  old  cities,  however,  is  main 
tained  by    the   commonwealth   in    the    form    of    its 
prosperity,    and  is    studied  by    antiquarians    for  the 
instruction,  and  by    moralists   for  the  admonition   it 
affords.    A  section  of  a  street  is  exposed,  and  you  see 
the  foundations  of  the  houses;  you  see  the  filthy  drains 
that  belched  into  the  common  sewers,  trapped  and  re- 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  283 

trapped  to  keep  the  poison  gases  down  ;  you  see  the 
sewers  that  rolled  their  loathsome  tides  under  the 
streets,  amidst  a  tangle  of  gas  pipes,  steam  pipes, 
water  pipes,  telegraph  wires,  electric  lighting  wires, 
electric  motor  wires  and  grip-cables  ;  all  without  a  plan, 
but  make-shifts,  expedients,  devices,  to  repair  and 
evade  the  fundamental  mistake  of  having  any  such 
cities  at  all. 

"  There  are  now  no  cities  in  Altruria,  in  your  mean 
ing,  but  there  arc  capitals,  one  for  each  of  the  Regions 
of  our  country,  and  one  for  the  whole  commonwealth. 
These  capitals  are  for  the  transaction  of  public  affairs, 
in  which  every  citizen  of  Altruria  is  schooled,  and 
they  are  the  residences  of  the  administrative  officials, 
who  are  alternated  every  year,  from  the  highest  to  the 
lowest.  A  public  employment  with  us  is  of  no 
greater  honor  or  profit  than  any  other,  for  with  our 
absolute  economic  equality,  there  can  be  no  ambition, 
and  there  is  no  opportunity  for  one  citizen  to  out 
shine  another.  But  as  the  capitals  are  the  centers  of 
all  the  arts,  which  we  consider  the  chief  of  our  public 
affairs,  they  are  oftencst  frequented  by  poets,  actors, 
painters,  sculptors,  musicians  and  architects.  We 
regard  all  artists,  who  are  in  a  sort  creators,  as  the 


284  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

human  type  which  is  likest  the  divine,  and  we  try  to 
conform  our  whole  industrial  life  to  the  artistic  tem 
perament.  Even  in  the  labors  of  the  field  and  shop, 
which  are  obligatory  upon  all,  we  study  the  inspira 
tions  of  this  temperament,  and  in  the  voluntary 
pursuits  we  allow  it  full  control.  Each,  in  these, 
follows  his  fancy  as  to  what  he  shall  do,  and  when  he 
shall  do  it,  or  whether  he  shall  do  anything  at  all.  In 
the  capitals  are  the  universities,  theaters,  galleries,  mu 
seums,  cathedrals,  laboratories  and  conservatories,  and 
the  appliances  of  every  art  and  science,  as  well  as  the 
administration  buildings  ;  and  beauty  as  well  as  use  is 
studied  in  every  edifice.  Our  capitals  are  as  clean 
and  quiet  and  healthful  as  the  country,  and  these 
advantages  are  secured  simply  by  the  elimination  of 
the  horse,  an  animal  which  we  should  be  as  much  sur 
prised  to  find  in  the  streets  of  a  town  as  the  plesio- 
saurus  or  the  pterodactyl.  All  transportation  in  the 
capitals,  whether  for  pleasure  or  business,  is  by 
electricity,  and  swift  electrical  expresses  connect  the 
capital  of  each  region  with  the  villages  which  radiate 
from  it  to  the  cardinal  points.  These  expresses  run  at 
the  rate  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  miles  an  hour,  and 
they  enable  the  artist,  the  scientist,  the  literary  man,  of 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  285 

the  remotest  hamlet,  to  visit  the  capital  (when  he  is 
not  actually  resident  there  in  some  public  use)  every 
day,  after  the  hours  of  the  obligatory  industries ;  or  if 
he  likes,  he  may  remain  there  a  whole  week  or  fort 
night,  giving  six  hours  a  day  instead  of  three  to  the 
obligatories,  until  the  time  is  made  up.  In  case  of 
very  evident  merit,  or  for  the  purpose  of  allowing  him 
to  complete  some  work  requiring  continuous  applica 
tion,  a  vote  of  the  local  agents  may  release  him  from 
the  obligatories  indefinitely.  Generally,  however,  our 
artists  prefer  not  to  ask  this,  but  avail  themselves  of 
the  stated  means  we  have  of  allowing  them  to  work  at 
the  obligatories,  and  get  the  needed  exercise  and 
variety  of  occupation,  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the 
capital. 

"  We  do  not- think  it  well  to  connect  the  hamlets  on 
the  different  lines  of  radiation  from  the.  capital, 
except  by  the  good  country  roads  which  traverse  each 
region  in  every  direction.  The  villages  are  mainly 
inhabited  by  those  who  prefer  a  rural  life  ;  they  are 
farming  villages ;  but  in  Altruria  it  can  hardly  be  said 
that  one  man  is  more  a  farmer  than  another.  We  do 
not  like  to  distinguish  men  by  their  callings  ;  we  do 
not  speak  of  the  poet  This  or  the  shoemaker  That,  for 


286  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

the  poet  may  very  likely  be  a  shoemaker  in  the 
obligatories,  and  the  shoemaker  a  poet  in  the  volun 
taries.  If  it  can  be  said  that  one  occupation  is 
honored  above  another  with  us,  it  is  that  which  we 
all  share,  and  that  is  the  cultivation  of  the  earth.  We 
believe  that  this,  when  not  followed  slavishly,  or  for 
gain,  brings  man  into  the  closest  relations  to  the  deity, 
through  a  grateful  sense  of  the  divine  bounty,  and 
that  it  not  only  awakens  a  natural  piety  in  him,  but 
that  it  endears  to  the  worker  that  piece  of  soil  which 
he  tills,  and  so  strengthens  his  love  of  home.  The 
home  is  the  very  heart  of  the  Altrurian  system,  and. 
we  do  not  think  it  well  that  people  should  be  away 
from  their  homes  very  long  or  very  often.  In  the  com 
petitive  and  monopolistic  times  men  spent  half  their 
days  in  racing  back  and  forth  across  our  continent  ; 
families  were  scattered  by  the  chase  for  fortune,  and 
there  was  a  perpetual  paying  and  repaying  of  visits. 
One-half  the  income  of  those  railroads  which  we  let 
fall  into  disuse  came  from  the  ceaseless  unrest.  Now 
a  man  is  born  and  lives  and  dies  among  his  own  kin 
dred,  and  the  sweet  sense  of  neighborhood,  of  brother 
hood,  which  blessed  the  golden  age  of  the  first 
Christian  republic  is  ours  again.  Every  year  the 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  287 

people  of  eacli  Reg-ion  meet  one  another  on  Evolution 
day,  in  the  Regionic  capital ;  once  in  four  years  they 
all  visit  the  national  capital.  There  is  no  danger  of 
the  decay  of  patriotism  among  us ;  our  country  is  our 
mother,  and  we  love  her  as  it  is  impossible  to  love  the 
stepmother  that  a  competitive  or  monopolistic  nation 
must  be  to  its  citizens. 

"  I  can  only  touch  upon  this  feature  and  that  of  our 
system,  as  I  chance  to  think  of  it.  If  any  of  you  are 
curious  about  others,  I  shall  be  glad  to  answer 
questions  as  well  as  I  can.  _  We  have,  of  course,"  the 
Altrurian  proceeded,  after  little  indefinite  pause,  to  let 
any  speak  who  liked,  "  no  money  in  your  sense. 
As  the  whole  people  control  affairs,  no  man  works  for 
another,  aud  no  man  pays  another.  Every  one  does 
his  share  of  labor,  and  receives  his  share  of  food, 
clothing  and  shelter,  which  is  neither  more  nor  less 
than  another's.  If  you  can  imagine  the  justice  and 
impartiality  of  a  well-ordered  family,  you  can  conceive 
of  the  social  and  economic  life  of  Altruria.  We  are, 
properly  speaking,  a  family  rather  than  a  nation 
like  yours. 

"  Of    course,    we    are    somewhat    favored    by    our 

insular,  or  continental  position  ;  but  I  do  not  know 
19 


288  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA, 

that  we  arc  more  so  than  you  are.  Certainly,  how 
ever,  we  are  self-sufficing  in  a  degree  unknown  to 
most  European  countries  ;  and  we  have  within  our 
borders  the  materials  of  every  comfort  and  the 
resources  of  every  need.  We  have  no  commerce  with 
the  egoistic  world,  as  we  call  that  outside,  and  I 
believe  that  I  am  the  first  Altrurian  to  visit  foreign 
countries  avowedly  in  my  national  character,  though 
we  have  always  had  emissaries  living  abroad  incog 
nito.  I  hope  that  I  may  say  without  offense  that 
they  find  it  a  sorrowful  exile,  and  that  the  reports  of 
the  egoistic  world,  with  its  wars,  its  bankruptcies,  its 
civic  commotions  and  its  social  unhappiness,  do  not 
make  us  discontented  with  our  own  condition. 
Before  the  Evolution  we  had  completed  the  round  of 
your  inventions  and  discoveries,  impelled  by  the  force 
that  drives  you  on  ;  and  we  have  since  disused  most 
of  them  as  idle  and  unfit.  But  we  profit,  now  and 
then,  by  the  advances  you  make  in  science,  for  we 
are  passionately  devoted  to  the  study  of  the  natural 
laws,  open  or  occult,  under  which  all  men  have  their 
being.  Occasionally  an  emissary  returns  with  a  sum 
of  money,  and  explains  to  the  students  of  the  national 
university  the  processes  by  which  it  is  lost  and  won  ; 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  289 

and  at  a  certain  time  there  was  a  movement  for  its 
introduction  among  us,  not  for  its  use  as  you  know 
it,  but  for  a  species  of  counters  in  games  of  chance. 
It  was  considered,  however,  to  contain  an  element  of 
danger,  and  the  scheme  was  discouraged. 

"  Nothing  amuses  and  puzzles  our  people  more  than 
the  accounts  our  emissaries  give  of  the  changes  of 
fashion  in  the  outside  world,  and  of  the  ruin  of  soul 
and  body  which  the  love  of  dress  often  works.  Our 
own  dress,  for  men  and  for  women,  is  studied  in  one 
ideal  of  use  and  beauty,  from  the  antique ;  caprice  and 
vagary  in  it  would  be  thought  an  effect  of  vulgar  van 
ity.  Nothing  is  worn  that  is  not  simple  and  honest 
in  texture ;  we  do  not  know  whether  a  thing  is  cheap 
or  dear,  except  as  it  is  easy  or  hard  to  come  by,  and 
that  which  is  hard  to  come  by  is  forbidden  as  waste 
ful  and  foolish.  The  community  builds  the  dwellings 
of  the  community,  and  these,  too,  are  of  a  classic  sim 
plicity,  though  always  beautiful  and  fit  in  form ;  the 
splendors  of  the  arts  are  lavished  upon  the  public 
edifices,  which  we  all  enjoy  in  common. 

"  Isn't  this  the  greatest  rehash  of  Utopia,  New 
Atlantis,  and  City  of  the  Sun,  that  you  ever  im 
agined  ? "  the  professor  whispered  across  me  to  the 


290        A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA 

banker.  "  The  man  is  a  fraud,  and  a  very  bungling 
fraud  at  that." 

"  Well,  you  must  expose  him,  when  he  gets 
through,"  the  banker  whispered  back. 

But  the  professor  could  not  wait.  He  got  upon  his 
feet,  and  called  out ;  "  May  I  ask  the  gentleman  from 
Altruria  a  question  ?  " 

"  Certainly,"  the  Altrurian  blandly  assented. 

14  Make  it  short ! "  Reuben  Camp's  voice  broke  in, 
impatiently.  "  We  didn't  come  here  to  listen  to  your 
questions." 

The  professor  contemptously  ignored  him.  "  I 
suppose  you  occasionally  receive  emissaries  from,  as 
well  as  send  them  to  the  world  outside? " 

"  Yes,  now  and  then  castaways  land  on  our  coasts, 
and  ships  out  of  their  reckonings  put  in  at  our  ports, 
for  water  or  provision." 

"And  how  are  they  pleased  with  your  system?" 

"  Why,  I  cannot  better  answer  than  by  saying  that 
they  mostly  refuse  to  leave  us." 

"  Ah,  just  as  Bacon  reports ! "  cried  the  professor. 

"You  mean  in  the  New  Atlantis?"  returned  the 
Altrurian.  "  Yes ;  it  is  astonishing  how  well  Bacon 
in  that  book,  and  Sir  Thomas  More  in  his  Utopia, 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  291 

have  divined  certain  phases  of  our  civilization  and 
polity." 

"  I  think  he  rather  has  you,  professor,"  the  banker 
whispered,  with  a  laugh. 

"  But  all  those  inspired  visionaries,"  the  Altrurian 
continued,  while  the  professor  sat  grimly  silent,  watch 
ing  for  another  chance,  "  who  have  borne  testimony 
of  us  in  their  dreams,  conceived  of  states  perfect  with 
out  the  discipline  of  a  previous  competitive  condition. 
What  I  thought,  however,  might  specially  interest  you 
Americans  in  Altruria  is  the  fact  that  our  economy 
was  evolved  from  one  so  like  that  in  which  you  actu 
ally  have  your  being.  I  had  even  hoped  you  might 
feel  that,  in  all  these  points  of  resemblance,  American 
prophesies  another  Altruria.  I  know  that  to  some  of 
you  all  that  I  have  told  of  my  country  will  seem  a 
baseless  fabric,  with  no  more  foundation,  in  fact,  than 
More's  fairy  tale  of  another  land  where  men  dealt 
kindly  and  justly  by  one  another,  and  dwelt,  a  whole 
nation,  in  the  unity  and  equality  of  a  family.  But 
wrhy  should  not  a  part  of  that  fable  have  come  true  in 
our  polity,  as  another  part  of  it  has  come  true  in 
yours  ?  When  Sir  Thomas  More  wrote  that  book,  he 
noted  with  abhorence  the  monstrous  injustice  of  the 


292  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA, 

fact  that  men  were  hanged  for  small  thefts  in  Eng 
land  ;  and  in  the  preliminary  conversation  between  its 
characters  he  denounced  the  killing  of  men  for  any 
sort  of  thefts.  Xow  you  no  longer  put  men  to  death 
for  theft ;  you  look  back  upon  that  cruel  code  of  your 
mother  England  with  an  abhorrence  as  gTeat  as  his 
own.  We,  for  our  part,  who  have  realized  the  Uto 
pian  dream  of  brotherly  equality,  look  back  with  the 
same  abhorrence  upon  a  state  where  some  were  rich  and 
some  poor,  some  taught  and  some  untaught,  some  high 
and  some  low,  and  the  hardest  toil  often  failed  to 
supply  a  sufficiency  of  the  food  which  luxury  wasted 
in  its  riots.  That  state  seems  as  atrocious  to  us  as 
the  state  which  hanged  a  man  for  stealing  a  loaf  of 
bread  seems  to  you. 

"  But  we  do  not  regret  the  experience  of  competition 
and  monopoly.  They  taught  us  some  things  in  the 
peration  of  the  industries.  The  labor-saving  inven 
tions  which  the  Accumulation  perverted  to  money- 
making,  we  have  restored  to  the  use  intended  by  their 
inventors  and  the  Creator  of  their  inventors.  After 
serving  the  advantage  of  socializing  the  industries 
which  the  Accumulation  effected  for  its  own  purposes, 
we  continued  the  work  in  large  mills  and  shops,  in  the 


A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA.       293 

interest  of  the  workers,  whom  we  wished  to  guard 
against  the  evil  effects  of  solitude.  But  our  mills  and 
shops  are  beautiful  as  well  as  useful.  They  look  like 
temples,  and  they  are  temples,  dedicated  to  that  sym 
pathy  between. the  divine  and  human  which  expresses 
itself  in  honest  and  exquisite  workmanship.  They  rise 
amid  leafy  boscages  beside  the  streams,  which  form 
their  only  power :  for  we  have  disused  steam  altogether, 
with  all  the  offenses  to  the  eye  and  ear  which  its  use 
brought  into  the  world.  Our  life  is  so  simple  and  our 
needs  are  so  few  that  the  handwork  of  the  primitive 
toilers  could  easily  supply  our  wants ;  but  machinery 
works  so  much  more  thoroughly  and  beautifully,  that 
we  have  in  great  measure  retained  it.  Only,  the 
machines  that  were  once  the  workman's  enemies  and 
masters  are  now  their  friends  and  servants  ;  and  if  any 
man  chooses  to  work  alone  with  his  own  hands,  the 
state  will  buy  what  he  makes  at  the  same  price  tha* 
it  sells  the  wares  made  collectively.  This  secures 
every  right  of  individuality. 

"  The  farm  work,  as  well  as  the  mill  work  and  the 
shop  work,  is  done  by  companies  of  workers ;  and 
there  is  nothing  of  that  loneliness  in  our  woods  and 
fields  which,  I  understand,  is  the  cause  of  so  much  in- 


294  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

sanity  among  you.  It  is  not  good  for  man  to  be 
alone,  was  the  first  thought  of  his  Creator  when  lie 
considered  him,  and  we  act  upon  this  truth  in  every 
thing.  The  privacy  of  the  family  is  sacredly  guarded 
in  essentials,  but  the  social  instinct  is  so  highly  devel 
oped  with  us  that  we  like  to  eat  together  in  large 
refectories,  and  we  meet  constantly  to  argue  and 
dispute  on  questions  of  {esthetics  and  metaphysics. 
We  do  not,  perhaps,  read  so  many  books  as  you  do, 
for  most  of  our  reading,  when  not  for  special  research, 
but  for  culture  and  entertainment,  is  done  by  public 
readers,  to  large  groups  of  listeners.  We  have  no 
social  meetings  which  arc  not  free  to  all ;  and  we 
encourage  joking  and  the  friendly  give  and  take  of 
witty  encounters." 

"  A  little  hint  from  Sparta,"  suggested  the  professor. 

The  banker  leaned  over  to  whisper  to  me,  "From 
what  I  have  seen  of  your  friend  when  offered  a  piece 
of  American  humor,  I  should  fancy  the  Altrurian  arti 
cle  was  altogether  different.  Upon  the  whole  I  would 
rather  not  be  present  at  one  of  their  witty  encounters, 
if  I  were  obliged  to  stay  it  out." 

The  Altrurian  had  paused  to  drink  a  glass  of  water, 
and  now  he  went  on.  "But  we  try,  in  everything 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  295 

that  does  not  inconvenience  or  injure  others,  to  let 
everyone  live  the  life  he  likes  best.  If  a  man  prefers 
to  dwell  apart  and  have  his  meals  in  private  for  him 
self  alone,  or  for  his  family,  it  is  freely  permitted ; 
only,  he  must  not  expect  to  be  served  as  in  public, 
where  service  is  one  of  the  voluntaries ;  private  service 
is  not  permitted ;  those  wishing  to  live  alone  must  wait 
upon  themselves,  cook  their  own  food  and  care  for 
their  own  tables.  Very  few,  however,  wish  to  with 
draw  from  the  public  life,  for  most  of  the  discussions 
and  debates  take  place  at  our  midday  meal,  which  falls 
at  the  end  of  the  obligatory  labors,  and  is  prolonged 
indefinitely,  or  as  long  as  people  like  to  chat  and  joke, 
or  listen  to  the  reading  of  some  pleasant  book. 

"  In  Altruria  there  is  no  hurry,  for  no  one  wishes  to 
outstrip  another,  or  in  any  wise  surpass  him.  We  are 
all  assured  of  enough,  and  arc  forbidden  any  and  every 
sort  of  superfluity.  If  anyone,  after  the  obligatories, 
wishes  to  be  entirely  idle,  he  may  be  so,  but  I  cannot 
now  think  of  a  single  person  without  some  voluntary 
occupation ;  doubtless  there  are  such  persons,  but  I  do 
not  know  them.  It  used  to  be  said,  in  the  old  times, 
that  '  it  was  human  nature '  to  shirk,  and  malinger  and 
loaf,  but  we  have  found  that  it  is  no  such  thing.  We 


296  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

have  found  that  it  is  human  nature  to  work  cheerfully, 
willingly,  eagerly,  at  the  tasks  which  all  share  for  the 
supply  of  the  common  necessities.  In  like  manner  we 
have  found  out  that  it  is  not  human  nature  to  hoard 
and  grudge,  but  that  when  the  fear,  and  even  the  im 
agination,  of  want  is  taken  away,  it  is  human  nature 
to  give  and  to  help  generously.  We  used  to  say,  *  A 
man  will  lie,  or  a  man  will  cheat  in  his  own  interest ; 
that  is  human  nature,'  but  that  is  no  longer  human 
nature  with  us,  perhaps  because  no  man  has  any 
interest  to  serve ;  he  has  only  the  interests  of  others 
to  serve,  while  others  serve  his.  It  is  in  nowise  pos 
sible  for  the  individual  to  separate  his  good  from  the 
common  good ;  he  is  prosperous  and  happy  only  as  all 
the  rest  are  so  ;  and  therefore  it  is  not  human  nature 
with  us  for  anyone  to  lie  in  wait  to  betray  another 
or  seize  an  advantage.  That  would  be  ungentlemanly, 
and  in  Altruria  every  man  is  a  gentleman,  and  every 
woman  a  lady.  If  you  will  excuse  me  here,  for  being 
so  frank,  I  would  like  to  say  something  by  way  of 
illustration,  which  may  be  offensive  if  you  take  it 
personally." 

He  looked  at  our  little  group,  as  if  he  were  address 
ing  himself  more  especially   to   us,    and  the  banker 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  297 

called  out  jolhly  :  "  Go  on  !  I  guess  we  can  stand  it," 
and  "  Go  ahead  !  "  came  from  all  sides,  from  all  kinds 
of  listeners. 

"  It  is  merely  this :  that  as  we  look  back  at  the  old 
competitive  conditions  we  do  not  sec  how  any  man 
could  be  a  gentleman  in  them,  since  a  gentleman  must 
think  first  of  others,  and  these  conditions  compelled 
every  man  to  think  first  of  himself." 

There  was  a  silence  broken  by  some  conscious  and 
hardy  laughter,  while  we  each  swallowed  this  pill  as 
we  could. 

*4  What  are  competitive  conditions  ?  "  Mrs.  Makely 
demanded  of  me. 

"  Well,  ours  are  competitive  conditions,"  I  said. 

"  Very  well,  then,"  she  returned,  "  I  don't  think 
Mr.  Homos  is  much  of  a  gentleman  to  say  such  a 
thing  to  an  American  audience.  Or,  wait  a  moment ! 
Ask  him  if  the  same  rule  applies  to  women ! " 

I  rose,  strengthened  by  the  resentment  I  felt,  and 
said,  "  Do  I  understand  that  in  your  former  competi 
tive  conditions  it  was  also  impossible  for  a  woman  to 
be  a  lady  ? " 

The  professor  gave  me  an  applausive  nod  as  I  sat 
down.  "I  envy  you  the  chance  of  that  little  dig," 
he  whispered. 


298  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

The  Altrurian  was  thoughtful  a  moment,  and  then 
he  answered :  "  No,  I  should  not  say  it  was.  From 
what  we  know  historically  of  those  conditions  in  our 
country,  it  appears  that  the  great  mass  of  women  were 
not  directly  affected  by  them.  They  constituted  an 
altruristic  dominion  of  the  egoistic  empire  and 
except  as  they  were  tainted  by  social  or  worldly  am 
bitions,  it  was  possible  for  every  woman  to  be  a  lady, 
even  in  competitive  conditions.  Her  instincts  were 
unselfish,  and  her  first  thoughts  were  nearly  always 
of  others." 

Mrs.  Makely  jumped  to  her  feet,  and  clapped  vio 
lently  with  her  fan  on  the  palm  of  her  left  hand. 
"  Three  cheers  for  Mr.  Homos !  "  she  shrieked,  and 
all  the  women  took  up  the  cry,  supported  by  all  the 
natives  and  the  construction  gang.  I  fancied  these 
fellows  gave  their  support  largely  in  a  spirit  of  bur 
lesque  ;  but  they  gave  it  robustly,  and  from  that  time 
on,  Mrs.  Makely  led  the  applause,  and  they  roared  in 
after  her. 

It  is  impossible  to  follow  closely  the  course  of  the 
Altrurian's  account  of  his  country,  which  grew  more 
and  more  incredible  as  he  went  on,  and  implied  every 
insulting  criticism  of  ours.  Some  one  asked  him 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  299 

about  war  in  Altruria,  and  he  said,  "  The  very  name 
of  our  country  implies  the  absence  of  war.  At  the 
time  of  the  Evolution  our  country  bore  to  the  rest  of 
our  continent  the  same  relative  proportion  that  your 
country  bears  to  your  continent.  The  egoistic  nations 
to  the  north  and  the  south  of  us  entered  into  an  offen 
sive  and  defensive  alliance  to  put  down  the  new 
altruistic  commonwealth,  and  declared  war  against  us. 
Their  forces  were  met  at  the  frontier  by  our  entire 
population  in  arms,  and  full  of  the  martial  spirit  bred  of 
the  constant  hostilities  of  the  competitive  and  monop- 
listic  epoch  just  ended.  Negotiations  began  in  the 
face  of  the  imposing  demonstration  we  made,  and  we 
were  never  afterward  molested  by  our  neighbors,  who 
finally  yielded  to  the  spectacle  of  our  civilization  and 
united  their  political  and  social  fate  with  ours.  At 
present,  our  whole  continent  is  Altrurian.  For  a  long 
time  we  kept  up  a  system  of  coast  defenses,  but  it  is 
also  a  long  time  since  we  abandoned  these ;  for  it  is  a 
maxim  with  us  that  where  every  citizen's  life  is  a 
pledge  of  the  public  safety,  that  country  can  never  be 
in  danger  of  foreign  enemies. 

"  In  this,  as  in  all  other  things,  we  believe  ourselves 
the  true  followers  of  Christ,  whose  doctrine  we  seek 


300  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

to  make  our  life,  as  He  made  it  His.  We  have  sev 
eral  forms  of  ritual,  but  no  form  of  creed,  and  our 
religious  differences  may  be  said  to  be  aesthetic  and 
temperamental  rather  than  theological  and  essential. 
We  have  no  denominations,  for  we  fear  in  this  as  in 
other  matters  to  give  names  to  things  lest  we  should 
cling  to  the  names  instead  of  the  things.  We  love 
the  realities,  and  for  this  reason  we  look  at  the  life  of 
a  man  rather  than  his  profession  for  proof  that  he  is 
a  religious  man. 

"I  have  been  several  times  asked, -during  my  so 
journ  among  you,  what  are  the  sources  of  compassion, 
of  sympathy,  of  humanity,  of  charity  with  us,  if  we 
have  not  only  no  want,  or  fear  of  want,  but  not  even 
any  economic  inequality.  I  suppose  this  is  because 
you  are  so  constantly  struck  by  the  misery  arising 
from  economic  inequality,  and  want,  or  the  fear  of 
want,  among  yourselves,  that  you  instinctively  look  in 
that  direction.  But  have  you  ever  seen  sweeter  com 
passion,  tenderer  sympathy,  warmer  humanity,  hcav- 
enlier  charity,  than  that  shown  in  the  family,  where 
all  are  economically  equal,  and  no  one  can  want  while 
any  other  has  to  give  ?  Altruria,  I  say  again,  is  a 
family,  and  as  we  are  mortal,  we  are  still  subject  to 


A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA.       301 

those  nobler  sorrows  which  God  has  appointed  to 
men,  and  which  arc  so  different  from  the  squalid 
accidents  that  they  have  made  for  themselves.  Sick 
ness  and  death  call  out  the  most  angelic  ministeries  of 
love  ;  and  those  who  wish  to  give  themselves  to  others 
may  do  so  without  hindrance  from  those  cares,  and 
even  those  duties,  resting  upon  men  where  each  must 
look  out  first  for  himself  and  for  his  own.  Oh,  be 
lieve  me,  believe  me,  you  can  know  nothing  of  the 
divine  rapture  of  self-sacrifice  while  you  must  dread 
the  sacrifice  of  another  in  it !  You  are  not  free,  as 
we  are,  to  do  everything  for  others,  for  it  is  your  duty 
to  do  rather  for  those  of  your  own  household  ! 

"  There  is  something,"  he  continued,  "  which  I 
hardly  know  how  to  speak  of,"  and  here  we  all  began 
to  prick  our  ears.  I  prepared  myself  as  well  as  I 
could  for  another  affront,  though  I  shuddered  when 
the  banker  hardily  called  out :  "  Don't  hesitate  to  say 
anything  you  wish,  Mr.  Homos.  I,  for  one,  should 
like  to  hear  you  express  yourself  fully." 

It  was  always  the  unexpected,  certainly,  that  hap 
pened  from  the  Altrurian.  "  It  is  merely  this,"  he 
said.  "  Having  come  to  live  rightly  upon  earth,  as 
we  believe,  or  having  at  least  ceased  to  deny  God  in 


302  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

our  statutes  and  customs,  the  fear  of  death,  as  it  once 
weighed  upon  us,  has  been  lifted  from  our  souls. 
The  mystery  of  it  has  so  far  been  taken  away  that  we 
perceive  it  as  something  just  and  natural.  Now  that 
all  unkindncss  has  been  banished  from  among  us,  we 
can  conceive  of  no  such  cruelty  as  death  once  seemed. 
If  we  do  not  know  yet  the  full  meaning  of  death,  we 
know  that  the  Creator  of  it  and  of  us  meant  mercy 
and  blessing  by  it.  "When  one  dies,  we  grieve,  but 
not  as  those  without  hope.  We  do  not  say  that  the 
dead  have  gone  to  a  better  place,  and  then  selfishly 
bewail  them  ;  for  we  have  the  kingdom  of  heaven  up 
on  earth,  already,  and  we  know  that  wherever  they  go 
they  will  be  homesick  for  Altruria,  and  when  we  think 
of  the  years  that  may  pass  before  we  meet  them  again, 
our  hearts  ache,  as  they  must.  But  the  presence  of  the 
risen  Christ  in  our  daily  lives  is  our  assurance  that  no 
one  ceases  to  be,  and  that  we  shall  sec  our  dead  again. 
I  cannot  explain  this  to  you  ;  I  can  only  affirm  it." 

The  Altrurian  spoke  very  solemnly,  and  a  reverent 
hush  fell  upon  the  assembly.  It  was  broken  by  the 
voice  of  a  woman  wailing  out :  "  Oh,  do  you  suppose, 
if  we  lived  so,  we  should  feel  so,  too  ?  That  I  should 
know  my  little  girl  was  living  ?  " 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  303 

"  Why  not  ?  "  asked  the  Altrurian. 

To  my  vast  astonishment,  the  manufacturer,  who 
sat  the  farthest  from  me  in  the  same  line  with  Mrs. 
Makcly,  the  professor  and  the  banker,  rose  and  asked 
tremulously  :  "  And  have — have  you  had  any  direct 
communication  with  the  other  world  ?  Has  any  dis 
embodied  spirit  returned  to  testify  of  the  life  beyond 
the  grave  ?  " 

The  professor  nodded  significantly  across  Mrs. 
Makely  to  me,  and  then  frowned  and  shook  his  head. 
I  asked  her  if  she  knew  what  he  meant.  "  Why, 
didn't  you  know  that  spiritualism  was  that  poor  man's 
foible  ?  He  lost  his  son  in  a  railroad  accident,  and 
ever  since" — 

She  stopped  and  gave  her  attention  to  the  Altru 
rian,  who  was  replying  to  the  manufacturer's  ques 
tion. 

"  We  do  not  need  any  such  testimony.  Our  life 
here  makes  us  sure  of  the  life  there.  At  any  rate,  no 
.extcrnation  of  the  supernatural,  no  objective  miracle, 
has  been  wrought  in  our  behalf.  We  have  had  faitli 
to  do  what  we  prayed  for,  and  the  prescience  of 
which  I  speak  has  been  added  unto  us." 

The  manufacturer  asked,   as  the  bereaved  mother 
20  - 


304  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

had  asked  :      "  And  if  I  lived  so,  should  I  feel  so  ?  " 
Again  the  Altrurian  answered  :  "  Why  not  ?  " 
The  poor  woman  quavered  :     "  Oh,  do  believe  it ! 
I  just  know  it  must  be  true !  " 

The  manufacturer  shook  his  head  sorrowfully,  and 
sat  down,  and  remained  there,  looking  at  the  ground. 
"  I  am  aware,"  the  Altrurian  went  on,  "  that  what 
I  have  said  as  to  our  realizing  the  kingdom  of  heaven 
on  the  earth  must  seem  boastful  and  arrogant.  That 
is  what  you  pray  for  every  day,  but  you  do  not  believe 
it  possible  for  God's  will  to  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is 
done  in  heaven  ;  that  is,  you  do  not  if  you  are  like 
the  competitive  and  monopolistic  people  we  once 
were.  We  once  regarded  that  petition  as  a  formula 
vaguely  pleasing  to  the  Deity,  but  we  no  more 
expected  His  kingdom  to  come  than  we  expected 
Him  to  give  us  each  day  our  daily  bread  ;  we  knew 
that  if  we  wanted  something  to  eat  we  should  have 
to  hustle  for  it,  and  get  there  first ;  I  use  the  slang  of 
that  far-off  time,  which,  I  confess,  had  a  vulgar 
vigor. 

"  But  -now  everything  is  changed,  and  the  change 
has  taken  place  chiefly  from  one  cause,  namely,  the 
disuse  of  money.  At  first,  it  was  thought  that  some 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  305 

sort  of  circulating  medium  must  be  used,  that  life 
could  not  be  transacted  without  it.  But  life  began 
to  go  on  perfectly  well,  when  each  dwelt  in  the  place 
assigned  him,  which  was  no  better  and  no  worse  than 
any  other  ;  and  when,  after  he  had  given  his  three 
hours  a  day  to  the  obligatory  labors,  he  had  a  right 
to  his  share  of  food,  light,  heat,  and  raiment ;  the 
voluntary  labors,  to  which  he  gave  much  time  or 
little,  brought  him  no  increase  of  those  necessaries, 
but  only  credit  and  affection.  We  had  always  heard 
it  said  that  the  love  of  money  was  the  root  of  all  evil, 
but  we  had  taken  this  for  a  saying,  merely  ;  now  we 
realized  it  as  an  active,  vital  truth.  As  soon  as 
money  wras  abolished,  the  power  to  purchase  was 
gone,  and  even  if  there  had  been  any  means  of  buying 
beyond  the  daily  needs,  with  overwork,  the  commu 
nity  had  no  power  to  sell  to  the  individual.  No  man 
owned  anything,  but  every  man  had  the  right  to  any 
thing  that  he  could  use ;  when  he  could  not  use  it, 
his  right  lapsed. 

"With  the  expropriation  of  the  individual,  the 
whole  vast  catalogue  of  crimes  against  property  shrank 
to  nothing.  The  thief  could  only  steal  from  the 
community ;  but  if  lie  stole,  what  was  he  to  do  with 


306  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

his  booty  ?  It  was  still  possible  for  a  depredator  to 
destroy,  but  few  men's  hate  is  so  comprehensive  as  to 
include  all  other  men,  and  when  the  individual  could 
no  longer  hurt  some  other  individual  in  his  property, 
destruction  ceased. 

"All  the  many  murders  done  from  love  of  money, 
or  of  what  money  could  buy,  were  at  an  end.  Where 
there  was  no  want,  men  no  longer  bartered  their  souls, 
or  women  their  bodies,  for  the  means  to  keep  them 
selves  alive.  The  vices  vanished  with  the  crimes,  and 
the  diseases  almost  as  largely  disappeared.  People 
were  no  longer  sickene<f  by  sloth  and  surfeit,  or  de 
formed  and  depleted  by  overwork  and  famine.  They 
were  wholesomely  housed  in  healthful  places,  and 
they  were  clad  fitly  for  their  labor  and  fitly  for  their 
leisure ;  the  caprices  of  vanity  were  not  suffered  to 
attaint  the  beauty  of  the  national  dress. 

"  With  the  stress  of  superfluous  social  and  business 
duties,  and  the  perpetual  fear  of  want  which  all 
classes  felt,  more  or  less ;  with  the  tumult  of  the 
cities  and  the  solitude  of  the  country,  insanity  had 
increased  among  us  till  the  whole  land  was  dotted 
with  asylums,  and  the  mad  were  numbered  by 
hundreds  of  thousands.  In  every  region  they  were 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  307 

an  army,  an  awful  army  of  anguish  and  dispair.  Now 
they  have  decreased  to  a  number  so  small,  and  are  of 
a  type  so  mild,  that  we  can  hardly  count  insanity 
among  our  causes  of  unhappincss. 

"  We  have  totally  eliminated  chance  from  our  eco 
nomic  life.  There  is  still  a  chance  that  a  man  will  he 
tall  or  short,  in  Altruria,  that  he  will  he  strong  or 
weak,  well  or  ill,  gay  or  grave,  happy  or  unhappy  in 
love,  but  none  that  he  will  be  rich  or  poor,  busy  or 
idle,  live  splendidly  or  meanly.  These  stupid  and  vul 
gar  accidents  of  human  contrivance  cannot  befall  us ; 
but  I  shall  not  be  able  to  tell  you  just  how  or  why, 
or  to  detail  the  process  of  eliminating  chance.  I  may 
say,  however,  that  it  began  with  the  nationalization 
of  telegraphs,  expresses,  railroads,  mines  and  all  large 
industries  operated  by  stock  companies.  This  at 
once  struck  a  fatal  blow  at  the  speculation  in  values, 
real  and  unreal,  and  at  the  stock  exchange,  or  bourse ; 
we  had  our  own  name  for  that  gambler's  paradise,  or 
gambler's  hell,  whose  baleful  influence  penetrated 
every  branch  of  business. 

"  There  were  still  business  fluctuations,  as  long  as 
we  had  business,  but  they  were  on  a  smaller  and 
smaller  scale,  and  with  the  final  lapse  of  business  they 


308  A    TKAVJSLKlt    FKOM    ALTUUKIA. 

necessarily  vanished;  all  economic  chance  vanished. 
The  founders  of  the  common-wealth  understood  per 
fectly  that  business  was  the  sterile  activity  of  the 
function  interposed  between  the  demand  and  the 
supply  ;  that  it  was  nothing  structural ;  and  they  in 
tended  its  extinction,  and  expected  it  from  the  moment 
that  money  was  abolished." 

"  This  is  all  pretty  tiresome,"  said  the  professor,  to 
our  immediate  party.  "  I  don't  see  why  we  oblige 
ourselves  to  listen  to  that  fellow's  stuff.  As  if  a  civ 
ilized  state  could  exist  for  a  day  without  money  or 
business." 

He  went  on  to  give  his  opinion  of  the  Altrurian's 
pretended  description,  in  a  tone  so  audible  that  it 
attracted  the  notice  of  the  nearest  group  of  railroad 
hands,  who  were  listening  closely  to  Homos,  and  one 
of  them  sang  out  to  the  professor :  "  Can't  you  wait 
and  let  the  first  man  finish  ? "  and  another  yelled  : 
4i  Put  him  out ! "  and  then  they  all  laughed  with  «*i 
humorous  perception  of  the  impossibility  of  literally 
executing  the  suggestion. 

By  the  time  all  was  quiet  again  I  heard  the  Altru- 
rian  saying :  "  As  to  our  social  life,  I  cannot  describe 
it  in  detail,  but  I  can  give  you  some  notion  of  its 


A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA.       309 

spirit.  We  make  our  pleasures  civic  and  public  as 
far  as  possible,  and  the  ideal  is  inclusive,  and  not  ex 
clusive.  There  arc,  of  course,  festivities  which  all 
cannot  share,  but  our  distribution  into  small  commu 
nities  favors  the  possibility  of  all  doing  so.  Our  daily 
.life,  however,  is  so  largely  social  that  we  seldom  meet 
by  special  invitation  or  engagement.  When  we  do,  it 
is  with  the  perfect  understanding  that  the  assemblage 
confers  no  social  distinction,  but  is  for  a  momentary 
convenience.  In  fact,  these  occasions  are  rather 
avoided,  recalling  as  they  do  the  vapid  and  tedious 
entertainments  of  the  competitive  epoch,  the  recep 
tions  and  balls  and  dinners  of  a  semi-barbaric  people 
striving  for  social  prominence  by  shutting  a  certain 
number  in  and  a  certain  number  out,  and  overdressing, 
overfeeding  and  overdrinking.  Anything  premedi 
tated  in  the  way  of  a  pleasure  we  think  stupid  and 
mistaken  ;  we  like  to  meet  suddenly,  or  on  the  spur 
of  the  moment,  out  of  doors,  if  possible,  and  arrange 
a  picnic,  or  a  dance,  or  a  play ;  and  let  people  come 
and  go  without  ceremony.  No  one  is  more  host  than 
guest ;  all  are  hosts  and  guests.  People  consort  much 
according  to  their  tastes — literary,  musical,  artistic, 
scientific,  or  mechanical — but  these  tastes  are  made 


310  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

approaches,  not  barriers  ;  and  we  find  out  that  we 
have  many  more  tastes  in  common  than  was  formerly 
supposed. 

"  But,  after  all,  our  life  is  serious,  and  no  one 
among  us  is  quite  happy,  in  the  general  esteem,  un 
less  he  has  dedicated  himself,  in  some  special  way,  to 
the  general  good.  Our  ideal  is  not  rights,  but  duties." 

"  Mazzini !  "  whispered  the  professor. 

"  The  greatest  distinction  which  anyone  can  enjoy 
with  us  is  to  have  found  out  some  new  and  signal  way 
of  serving  the  community ;  and  then  it  is  not  good 
form  for  him  to  seek  recognition.  The  doing  any 
fine  thing  is  the  purest  pleasure  it  can  give  ;  applause 
flatters,  but  it  hurts,  too,  and  our  benefactors,  as  we 
call  them,  have  learned  to  shun  it. 
1  "  We  arc  still  far  from  thinking  our  civilization 
perfect ;  but  we  are  sure  that  our  civic  ideals  are  per 
fect.  What  we  have  already  accomplished  is  to  have 
given  a  whole  continent  perpetual  peace ;  to  have 
founded  an  economy  in  which  there  is  no  uossibility 
of  want ;  to  have  killed  out  political  and  social  am 
bition;  to  have  disused  money  and  eliminated  chance; 
to  have  realized  the  brotherhood  of  the  race,  and  to 
have  outlived  the  fear  of  death." 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  311 

The  Altrurian  suddenly  stopped  with  these  words, 
and  sat  down.  lie  had  spoken  a  long  time,  and  with 
a  fullness  which  my  report  gives  little  notion  of ;  but, 
though  most  of  his  cultivated  listeners  were  weary, 
and  a  good  many  ladies  had  left  their  seats  and  gone 
back  to  the  hotel,  not  one  of  the  natives,  or  the  work 
people  of  any  sort,  had  stirred  ;  now  they  remained  a 
moment  motionless  and  silent,  before  they  rose  from 
all  parts  of  the  field,  and  shouted  :  "  Go  on  !  Don't 
stop  !  Tell  us  all  about  it!" 

I  saw  Reuben  Camp  climb  the  shoulders  of  a  big 
fellow  near  where  the  Altrurian  had  stood ;  he  waved 
the  crowd  to  silence  with  outspread  arms.  "  lie  isn't 
going  to  say  anything  more ;  lie's  tired.  But  if  any 
man  don't  think  he's  got  his  dollar's  worth,  let  him 
walk  up  to  the  door  and  the  ticket-agent  will  refund 
him  his  money," 

The  crowd  laughed,  and  some  one  shouted :  "  Good 
for  you,  He ub  !  " 

Camp  continued  :  "  But  our  friend  here  will  shake 
the  hand  of  any  man,  woman  or  child,  that  wants  to 
speak  to  him  ;  and  you  needn't  wipe  it  on  tho  grass, 
first,  either.  He's  a  man!  And  I  want  to  say  that 
he's  going  to  spend  the  next  week  with  us,  at  my 


312  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

mother's  house,  and  we  shall  be  glad  to  have  you 
call." 

The  crowd,  the  rustic  and  ruder  part  of  it,  cheered 
and  cheered  till  the  mountain  echoes  answered ;  then 
a  railroader  called  for  three  times  three,  with  a  tiger, 
and  got  it.  The  guests  of  the  hotel  broke  away  and 
went  toward  the  house,  over  the  long  shadows  of  the 
meadow.  The  lower  classes  pressed  forward,  on 
Camp's  invitation. 

"  Well,  did  you  ever  hear  a  more  disgusting  rigma 
role  ? "  asked  Mrs.  Makely,  as  our  little  group  halted 
indecisively  about  her. 

"With  all  those  imaginary  commonwealths  to  draw 
upon,  from  Plato,  through  More,  Bacon,  and  Campa- 
nella,  down  to  Bellamy  and  Morris,  he  has  constructed 
the  shakiest  effigy  ever  made  of  old  clothes  stuffed 
with  straw,"  said  the  professor. 

The  manufacturer  was  silent.  The  banker  said  : 
"  I  don't  know.  lie  grappled  pretty  boldly  with  your 
insinuations.  That  frank  declaration  that  Altruria 
was  all  these  pretty  soap-bubble  worlds  solidified,  was 
rather  fine." 

"  It  was  splendid  !  "  cried  Mrs.  Makely.  The  law 
yer  and  the  minister  came  towards  us  from  where  they 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  313 

had  been  sitting  together.  She  called  out  to  them  : 
"  Why  in  the  world  didn't  one  of  you  gentlemen  get 
up  and  propose  a  vote  of  thanks  ? " 

"  The  difficulty  with  me  is,"  continued  the  banker, 
"  that  he  has  rendered  Altruria  incredible.  I  have  no 
doubt  that  lie  is  an  Altrurian,  but  I  doubt  very  much 
if  he  comes  from  anywhere  in  particular,  and  I  find 
this  quite  a  blow,  for  we  had  got  Altruria  nicely  lo 
cated  on  the  map,  and  were  beginning  to  get  accounts 
of  it  in  the  newspapers." 

"  Yes,  that  is  just  exactly  the  way  I  feel  about  it," 
sighed  Mrs.  Makely.  "  But  still,  don't  you  think 
there  ought  to  have  been  a  vote  of  thanks,  Mr. 
Bullion?" 

"  Why,  certainly.  The  fellow  was  immensely 
amusing,  and  you  must  have  got  a  lot  of  money  by 
him.  It  was  an  oversight  not  to  make  him  a  formal 
acknowledgment  of  some  kind.  If  we  offered  him 
money,  he  would  have  to  leave  it  all  behind  him  here 
when  he  went  home  to  Altruria." 

"  Just  as  we  do  when  we  go  to  heaven  ;"  I  suggested; 
the  banker  did  not  answer,  and  I  instantly  felt  that  in 
the  presence  of  the  minister  my  remark  was  out  of 
taste. 


314  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

"  Well,  then,  don't  you  think,"  said  Mrs.  Makely, 
who  had  a  leathery  insensibility  to  everything  but  the 
purpose  possessing  her,  "  that  we  ought  at  least  to  go 
and  say  something  to  him  personally  ? " 

"  Yes,  I  think  we  ought,"  said  the  banker,  and  we 
all  walked  up  to  where  the  Altrurian  stood,  still 
thickly  surrounded  by  the  lower  classes,  who  were 
shaking  hands  with  him,  and  getting  in  a  word  with 
him  now  and  then. 

One  of  the  construction  gang  said,  carelessly  :  "  No 
all-rail  route  to  Altruria,  I  suppose  ?  " 

"  No,"  answered  Homos,   "  it's  a  far  sea  voyage." 

"  Well,  I  shouldn't  mind  working  my  passage,  if 
you  think  they'd  let  me  stay  after  I  got  there." 

**  Ah,  you  mustn't  go  to  Altruria !  You  must  let 
Altruria  come  to  you,"  returned  Homos,  with  that 
confounded  smile  of  his  that  always  won  my  heart. 

"  Yes,"  shouted  Reuben  Camp,  whose  thin  face 
was  red  with  excitement,  "  that's  the  word  !  Have 
Altruria  right  here,  and  right  now  !  " 

The  old  farmer,  who  had  several  times  spoken, 
cackled  out :  "  I  didn't  know,  one  while,  when  you 
was  talk'n'  about  not  havin'  no  money,  but  what  some 
on  us  had  had  Altrury  here  for  quite  a  spell,  already. 


A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA.       315 

I  don't  pass  more'n  fifty  dolla's  through  my  hands, 
most  years." 

A  laugh  went  up,  and  then,  at  sight  of  Mrs.  Makely 
heading  our  little  party,  the  people  round  Homos 
civilly  made  way  for  us.  She  rushed  upon  him,  and 
seized  his  hand  in  both  of  hers  ;  she  dropped  her  fan, 
parasol,  gloves,  handkerchief  and  vinaigrette  in  the 
grass  to  do  so.  "  Oh,  Mr.  Homos  !  "  she  fluted,  and 
the  tears  came  into  her  eyes,  "  it  was  beautiful, 
beautiful,  every  word  of  it !  I  sat  in  a  perfect  trance 
from  beginning  to  end,  and  I  felt  that  it  was  all  as 
true  as  it  was  beautiful.  People  all  around  me  were 
breathless  with  interest,  and  I  don't  know  how  1 
can  ever  thank  you  enough." 

"  Yes,  indeed,"  the  professor  hastened  to  say, 
before  the  Altrurian  could  answer,  and  he  beamed 
malignantly  upon  him  through  his  spectacles  while  he 
spoke,  "  it  was  like  some  strange  romance." 

"  I  don't  know  that  I  should  go  so  far  as  that," 
said  the  banker,  in  his  turn,  "  but  it  certainly  seemed 
too  good  to  be  true." 

"  Yes,"  the  Altrurian  responded  simply,  but  a  little 
sadly,  "  now  that  I  am  away  from  it  all,  and  in 
conditions  so  different,  I  sometimes  had  to  ask 


316       A  TRAVELER  FROM  ALTRURIA. 

myself,  as  I  went  on,  if  my  whole  life  had  not 
hitherto  been  a  dream,  and  Altruria  were  not  some 
blessed  vision  of  the  night." 

"  Then  you  know  how  to  account  for  a  feeling 
which  I  must  acknowledge,  too  ? "  the  lawyer  asked 
courteously.  "  But  it  was  most  interesting." 

"  The  kingdom  of  God  upon  earth,"  said  the 
minister,  "  it  ought  not  to  be  incredible  ;  but  that, 
more  than  anything  else  you  told  us  of,  gave  me 
pause." 

"You,  of  all  men?"  returned  the  Altrurian,  gently. 

"  Yes,"  said  the  minister,  with  a  certain  dejection, 
"  when  I  remember  what  I  have  seen  of  men,  when  I 
reflect  what  human  nature  is,  how  can  I  believe  that 
the  kingdom  of  God  will  ever  come  upon  the  earth  ?  " 

"  But  in  heaven,  where  lie  reigns,  who  is  it  docs 
His  will  ?  The  spirits  of  men  ? "  pursued  the  Altru 
rian. 

"  Yes,  but  conditioned  as  men  are  here  " — 

"  But  if  they  were  conditioned  as  men  are  there  ?  " 

"  Now,  I  can't  let  you  two  good  people  get  into  a 
theological  dispute,"  Mrs.  Makely  pushed  in.  "  Here 
is  Mr.  T  \velvemough  dying  to  shake  hands  with  Mr. 
Homos  and  compliment  his  distinguished  guest !  " 


A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA.  317 

"  Ah,  Mr.  Homos  knows  what  I  must  have  thought 
of  his  talk  without  my  telling  him,"  I  began,  skill 
fully.  "  But  I  am  sorry  that  I  am  to  lose  my 
distinguished  guest  so  soon  !  " 

Reuben  Camp  broke  out :  "  That  was  my  blunder, 
Mr.  Twelvemough.  Mr.  Homos  and  I  had  talked  it 
over,  conditionally,  and  I  was  not  to  speak  of  it  till 
he  had  told  you  ;  but  it  slipped  out  in  the  excitement 
of  the  moment." 

"  Oh,  it's  all  right,"  I  said,  and  I  shook  hands 
cordially  with  both  of  them.  "  It  will  be  the  greatest 
possible  advantage  for  Mr.  Homos  to  see  certain 
phases  of  American  life  at  close  range,  and  he 
couldn't  possibly  see  them  under  better  auspices  than 
yours,  Camp." 

"  Yes,  I'm  going  to  drive  him  through  the  hill 
country,  after  haying,  and  then  I'm  going  to  take  him 
down  and  show  him  one  of  our  big  factory  towns." 

I  believe  this  was  done,  but  finally  the  Altrurian 
went  on  to  New  York,  where  he  was  to  pass  the  win 
ter.  We  parted  friends ;  I  even  offered  him  some  in 
troductions  ;  but  his  acquaintance  had  become  more 
and  more  difficult,  and  I  was  not  sorry  to  part  with 
him.  That  taste  of  his  for  low  company  was  incur- 


318  A    TRAVELER    FROM    ALTRURIA. 

able,  and  I  was  glad  that  I  was  not  to  be  responsible  any 
longer  for  whatever  strange  thing  he  might  do  next. 
I  think  he  remained  very  popular  with  the  classes  he 
most  affected ;  a  throng  of  natives,  construction  hands 
and  table-girls  saw  him  off  on  his  train  ;  and  he  left 
large  numbers  of  such  admirers  in  our  house  and 
neighborhood,  devout  in  the  faith  that  there  was  such 
a  commonwealth  as  Altruria,  and  that  he  was  really 
an  Altrurian.  As  for  the  more  cultivated  people  who 
had  met  him,  thcyc^etmncd-oiL^two  minds  upon  both 
points.  f[  OF  THE 

fi    UNIVERSITY 

OF 


THE    END. 


: :. 

War  S»: 


:       :  E  : 


--.-_  __ 


:  -     ~    IF  "^-_ 

— 


. 

^^ 1  _  —  '  b-'  "V~~- 


